UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



SOGIAL ASPECTS OF THE JEWISH 
COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



BY 

PHILIP REUBEN GOLDSTEIN 



A THESIS 

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN 

PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 



flUje lieagne printing C0-, ,3nr. 

TEN WEST EIGHTEENTH STREET 

NEW YORK 

1921 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE JEWISH 
COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



BY 

PHILIP REUBEN GOLDSTEIN 



A THESIS 

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN 

PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 



9Hfe TCragm' -printing (Ho., ,3lnc- 

TEN WEST EIGHTEENTH STREET 

NEW YORK 

1921 






am 



DEDICATED 

to the 

Trustees of the Jewish Chautauqua Society in evidence 

of my sincere and earnest appreciation of their 

great interest in the welfare of the Jewish 

Colonies of South Jersey 



FOREWORD 



While the Ghetto life of the Jews figures in popular knowledge and in 
literature, little has been made of their unflinching exertions, for almost 
forty years, to bring to the flourishing point agricultural colonies of their 
own, in South America, Canada, and — in the United States — in Louisiana, 
the Dakotas, Colorado, and Oregon, Kansas, and New Jersey. 

The writer, having spent six years in one of the South Jersey colonies 
as Director of Cultural Activities for the Jewish Chautauqua Society, and 
having, therefore, intimately observed the social being, in entirety, of the 
Jews there, believes that a study of the beginnings, vicissitudes, and pros- 
pects of the quite typical South Jersey colonies should lead to insight into 
the social and economic potentialities of such settlements. 

The writer's data spring from a community survey of all the colonies 
to be considered hereafter, from annual reports of the Jewish Agricultural 
and Industrial Aid Society, from statistics of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, 
and from supplementary communication with their officials and conversa- 
tion with pioneers in the Jewish colonization movement. The data have 
all been collated and set forth with a will to absolute unpartiality. 

May I thank by name the gentlemen just referred to : Gabriel Davidson, 
the general manager of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society 
of New York City; Mr. Maurice Fels, of Philadelphia; Mr. Louis Mounier 
of Vineland, New Jersey; Mr. Frank Hartman, supervising principal of the 
Woodbine Land and Improvement Company, as well as all those others who 
helped to make this thesis possible. 

May the writer's hopes for the advancement, no matter how slight, by 
this paper, of practical wisdom as applied to the Jewish problem go not 
unfulfilled! 



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in 2011 with funding from 
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CONTENTS 

Page 
I The Beginnings of Jewish Colonization in America 9 

1) Historic Causes of the East-European Phase. 

2) Early American Enterprises. 

II The South Jersey Colonies: Their Founders and Promoters 13 

1) Alliance 
Rosenhayn 
Carmel 
Garton Road 
Woodbine. 

2) Philanthropic Cooperation 

III The Status of the Colonies in 1919 29 

Population Table 3 

Economic Conditions : 

The Level Table 4 

The Basis 5 

Transportation and Communication 6 

Stores ' 

Industrial Conditions - 8 

Public Education 9 

Religious Life 10 

Social Life H 

IV Potentialities 58 

1) Deficiencies 

2) Counter-measures: Cultural, Educational, Social. 

Bibliography. 70 



CHAPTER I. 
THE BEGINNINGS OF JEWISH COLONIZATION IN AMERICA. 

To follow out the beginnings of Jewish colonization in America, and 
in South Jersey, particularly, we must delve briefly into the history of the 
Jews in Russia during the Nineteenth Century. We shall find that towards 
the end of the Eighteenth Century, when a famine came and desolated the 
Jews in White Russia, the poet Derzhavin, sent there by Czar Paul, to 
survey their economic and social condition, proposed that the surplus 
population of White Russia be settled as farmers in Astrakhan and. New 
Russia 1 . A commission was appointed (1802) by the next Czar, Alexander 
I, to work out Derzhavin's idea; and at its instance, seven Jewish agri- 
cultural colonies were founded in 1806 in New Russia. Eighty thousand 
acres were allotted to them; and, for the first time, Jews were permitted 
to buy or lease Russian soil. Yet the want of adequate financing and 
appropriate governmental good-will disheartened many and drained the 
colonies. Similar was the history of the colonization program of Nicholas 
I. And yet, a sprinkling of Jewish farm colonies were in a brave state 
of self-maintenance, when the May-Laws of 1882 swept away what was and 
all it might have been. 

The thunderbolt was the assassination of Alexander II. Because a few 
Jews were implicated in the Nihilist conspiracy, the whole race was held 
guilty of the crime. Nation-wide massacre followed, and plunder which 
spared nothing. Yet this spirit of vengeance, taking no account of the 
loving, condoning regard the Jews had shown toward the Czar despite all 
the tyrannies of his officials, raged on, leading to the following decree, 
issued May 3, 1882, and so known as the May-Laws. 

"(1) As a temporary measure, and until a general revision is made 
of their legal status, it is decreed that the Jews be forbidden to settle anew 
outside of towns and boroughs, exceptions being admitted only in case of 
existing agricultural colonies. 

"(2) Temporarily forbidden is the issuing of mortgages and other 
deeds to Jews, as well as the registration of Jews as lessees of real property 
situated outside of towns and boroughs; and also the issuing to Jews of 
powers of attorney to manage and dispose of such real property. 

iNikitin, Vladimir: Yevreiskiva zemledyelcheskiya kolonii, Voskhod, St. Petersburg, 
1882-1889. 



10 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

"(3) Jews are forbidden to transact business on Sundays and the 
principal Christian holy days ; the existing regulations concerning the closing 
of places of business belonging to Christians on such days to apply to lews 
also. 

"(4) The measures laid down in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3, shall apply 
only to the governments within the Pale of Jewish Settlements (that is, they 
shall not apply to the ten governments of Poland)." 1 

Thus rendered homeless, the Jewish masses began to dream of a new 
home in the Land of the Free. The movement known as the "Am Olom" 2 
("The Eternal People") emerged, to influence the people to go and found 
agricultural colonies in America. When the migration started, difficulties 
were encountered which might have ended in calamity, if the "Alliance 
Israelite Universelle" had not been prepared to aid and defend. This now 
world-wide society began (I860) 3 with a group of six Parisian Jews whose 
determination it was, as stated in their "Appeal to the Public", not only 
to "defend the honor of the Jewish name" and to work "with all the 
moral influences at our command, for the emancipation of our brethren 
who still suffer under the burden of exceptional legislation", but also to 
sustain in their moral heritage, to educate and to train in handicrafts, the 
downtrodden and helpless. The age of anti-Semitic agitation, 4 of forcible 
baptisms had set in ; 5 and it was fortunate that far-seeing Jews in the 
Occident heeded the signs of the times. 

Immediately the pogroms broke out, the financial resources, as well 
as diplomatic influence, of the Alliance were at the disposal of the suffering. 
When the thousands of Jews were breaking away to America, the courage 
and power of the Alliance met their supreme trial. The fugitives who had 
survived dangerous and costly smuggling and other hardships of the road 
quite as inhuman as those of Siberian fugitives, and reached at last t he- 
Austrian border, found themselves there penniless, friendless, at the mercy 
of the Austrian government. The Alliance again was on the scene and 
helped 1500 men and women to come to America. Thus was inaugurated 
the migration en masse of East European Jews to the United States. 

Arrived in America, these 1500 were without means of support. A 
committee of Jews known as the "Mansion House Committee", animated 
by the mottoes of Rabbi Hillel — "Do not separate thyself from thy people" : 
"If I am for myself alone, what am I?" — met in England; while, in the 



'The Persecutions of the Jews in Russia, issued by the Russo-Jcwish Committee, 

London, 1890, contains a summary of the special and restrictive laws. 
-Hist, of the Jews in Modern Times, Max Raisin, p. 296. 
sjewish Encyc. Vol. 1, pp. 413-422. 
•'The Persecutions of the Jews in Russia, Supra. 
-Ibid. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF JEWISH COLONIZATION IN AMERICA. 11 

United States, the Emigrant Aid Society came into being to afford (as 
stated in the articles of incorporation) "aid and advice to emigrants of the 
Hebrew faith coming to the United States from countries where they have 
suffered by reason of oppressive laws or a hostile populace; to afford aid 
and advice to emigrants desiring the help of the society in settling in 
the United States upon lands of the society or otherwise." 

How sorely in need of such help even those who came after the 
pioneers were, may be seen from the briefest account of their privations 
on the way. 

First, there were the costly and circuitous negotiations with officials 
for a passport, without which one could not legally leave Russia. So arduous 
and hazardous was the suit for the passport, that many, as already alluded 
to, preferred the deft arm of smugglers who, in partnership with the border- 
sentries, did a thriving business of sneaking fugitives over the "Grenetz" 
into Austria. But the fugitives were always in danger of marauding onsets 
or of spiteful or unsympathetic guards. If they were lucky, they got 
through to a port of embarkation, where, while awaiting their ship, parasites 
posing as guides and advisors stripped them of the little that remained to 
them. In such plight, they embarked at Bremen and Hamburg for America. 

Once here, those who were of the "Am Olom" desired to "return to 
Nature", in order to recreate the free and natural life of their Palestinian 
forefathers. Others were repelled from the American city in the fear that 
the traditional Judaism so priceless to them would there be destroyed. 
The instinctively wise determination of both groups to engage in agriculture 
was far stronger than their preparation for the work and life. An old 
pioneer told the writer, "They did not even know if potatoes grew above' 
or under ground." 

It was obvious that they should join in colonies. Gradually, the Ameri- 
can Jews took sympathetic notice of their enterprise. The funds available, 
however, to the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society in 1882, were not sufficient 
to sustain the colonies already founded. The Society founded other colonies, 
among which were Alliance, Rosenhayn, and Carmel, in South Jersey. 
European organizations were not slow to cooperate; colonies arose, as 
stated, in the North- West, South-East, and South- West. 1 

Initiated without experience, composed of men who had been mer- 
chants, students, and professional men in the cities and towns of Russia, 
unschooled in the trying labors of the farmer, if not without the courage 
of the pioneer, prey, in a changed environment, to sickness and death, 



^'Settlements were also formed in Ziontown, N. J., in Connecticut and Delaware, and 
other Eastern and Middle States ; also in Canada ; but these it seems have not at- 
tracted many. Climatic conditions in Canada are not favorable for colonization." 
— The Jews of Philadelphia, Morais, Henry Samuel, p. 214. 



12 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

and withal, stranded among strangers with whom they could not associate, 
— what wonder so many of the colonies dissolved I 1 

It must not be thought that mese were the earliest attempts of the kind 
in the United States. The famous and versatile Major Mordecai Noah, a 
leading spirit in the vigorous life of his time, traveling in Europe, learned 
of the unfortunate circumstances of his people there and became a fervid 
Zionist. Perceiving, however, that a settlement was more immediately 
practicable in the United States than in Zion, he purchased with others, in 
1825, 17,381 acres of Grand Island in the Niagara River for $76,230, and 
named the place, Utopia. Years of agitation induced no one to move there; 
only a commemorative monument, built by the founder, went up on the 
site; and it has since worn away. 

Another attempt at agricultural settlement was the colony Shalom 
(Peace), in Warwarsing Township, Ulster Co., New York, whither, in 1837, 
twelve families, inspired by Moses Cohen, came from New York. When 
the pioneers departed, others arrived. They farmed, or traded with neigh 
boring villages, or manufactured. At the end of five earnest years, the 
enterprise ended in failure. 2 

Such were the only undertakings of the kind in the United States prior 
to the great tide of immigration spoken of above — which brought with it, 
among others, the South Jersey colonies that are the theme of the following 
chapters. 



1 "If failure had been the deliberate object of the venture, they could not have suc- 
ceeded better .... They were far more sinned against than sinning . . . ." Annual 
message of the President of the National Farm School, 1920. 

2 See "The Occident and American Jewish Advocate" [April, 1843] (ed. by Isaac 
Leeser), for an article pleading for an agricultural colony in the U. S. "In such 
a society, excellent men and worthy women might spring up who would deserve to 
be called an ornament to Israel and an honor to mankind." 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SOUTH JERSEY COLONIES: 
THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 

While, then, Jewish agricultural colonization in North America appears, 
mainly, to have aborted, the settlements in South Jersey have endured with 
a confirmed vitality. Their history — the concern of this chapter — will, I 
hope, establish that, given a favorable location and the satisfactory educa- 
tional and social opportunities without which he can nowhere be happy, 
the Jewish farmer will produce as good a crop per acre as his Scotch or 
Scandinavian neighbor; that, therefore, the opinion that the Jew is unsuited 
to farming is entirely contrary to the actual facts. 

Naturally the swelling wave of East European Jewish immigration 
tended to pour itself into the coast cities, chiefly New York. The immediate 
consequences were: first, the civic and welfare problems causd by im- 
migrant-congestion in the large cities, and, thereupon, not only the impatience 
of the American Jews (mainly German) with the heavy call upon their 
liberality, but their concern, their fear, their marked antagonism. 1 To 
sprinkle the multitude over a wide area and in self-sustaining colonies be- 
came, then, the program of their agencies. And so far bent were they on 
diverting the flow of immigration from the cities that, inadvertently, they 
gave almost no thought to the agronomic phases of the colonization. — The 
sites were chosen without due regard to the values of the soil, or to the 
availability of markets; nor was sufficient allowance made for the utter 
inexpertness of the strangers and for their pennilessness. Happily, in South 
Jersey, the soil, while requiring more of manure and fertilizer than do 
many other farm areas, and the climatic conditions as well, were more 
favorable than were those of the majority of other like settlements. 

The first of the colonies, Alliance, 2 was founded in May, 1882. The 
pioneers were about twenty-five Jewish families, fugitive from the Russian 
persecutions, and their sponsors were, jointly, the Hebrew Emigrant Aid 
Society of New York and the Alliance Israelite Universelle, from the latter 



Personal conferences with a number of the pioneers. 

2 "I believe," Mr. Mounier writes me, "the colonization was not so much the result 
of a long and thoughtful preparation as it was one of dire necessity — a means to 
remove 'a thorn in the side' of people who saw in the congestion of the large 
cities a danger to the Jewish cause." 

13 



14 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

of which the colony, gratefully, took its name. Soon, with more families 
arriving, there was a total of sixty-seven — the people being, in the main, 
from Kief, Odessa, and Elizabetgrad. 

About 1100 acres, thickly overgrown with scrub oak and pine, were 
secured, surveyed, and divided into 15 acre plots. The work of clearing 
strained the flaccid muscles of the harassed children of the Pale; the 
mosquitoes of the swamps, and the difficulty, among still others, to obtain 
water led many to despond; only their idealism held them in rein, as they 
hewed at the dense-grown trees and bushes. 

During those first days, they were housed in three large buildings 
which, with bitter humor, they called "Castle Garden" after the famous 
immigrant-station in New York harbor; there was a common kitchen, 
Spartan fashion ; the necessaries were provided by the Emigrant Aid 
Society. As the ground was cleared, this society, known later as the 
Alliance Land Trust, built small frame houses, dug wells, furnished utensils 
for the household ; seeds, plants, and tools, for the farm ; as well as several 
monthly allowances of eight to twelve dollars. When the land was finally 
made ready, the pioneers planted corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and the like. 

At first, those who found their proceeds inadequate would with their 
families go miles, seeking work with the gentile farmers in the vicinity. 
Not much later, in that first period, a number of those in this situation were 
working in a cider factory which had been started by a New Yorker, 
named Moses W. Mendel, jn one of the large buildings aforementioned. 
The factory could not maintain itself and was pretty soon abandoned. 
Attended, then, by the inevitable severe hardships, the settlement was now in 
its crisis. Word was sent, perforce, to the "Association of Jewish Immi- 
grants" 1 in Philadelphia, which authorized its president, Alfred T. Jones, 
and its treasurer, Simon Muhr, to visit Alliance and report conditions. Aid 
followed in form of food, clothing, household utensils, and farming imple- 
ments. The Mansion House Committee of London, in its turn, conveyed 
about ten thousand dollars to the Alliance Land Trust to help the farmers 
pay off the mortgages, which were claiming immediate settlement. 

Not only did, thereby, some of the farmers secure deeds to their farms, 
but the colony, at large, was sustained and strengthened. So that when, in 
1885, the colonists netted a little profit on their harvest, they turned to 
their work with new vigor; they built larger, more desirable dwellings, barns, 
and outhouses. In the winter, for the most part, they earned their livelihood 
by working at shirts, vests, or coats in the factories which came and went. 
There were others who did not farm at all hut worked in the factories all 



'Concerning the Association of Jewish Immigrants, see The .lows of Philadelphia. 
Morais, Henry Samuel, pp. 133-135. 



THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 15 

year round. In 1887 more immigrants arrived. 

As soon as the colonists felt at all economically established, they turned 
their impatiently postponed attention to their spiritual requirements. On 
July 29, 1888, the anniversary of their landing in America, with prominent 
gentlemen from New York, Philadelphia, and Washington to mark the oc- 
casion, they dedicated the Alliance Synagogue, which they called Eben Ha 
Ezer (The Rock of Salvation) ; and, two years later, another synagogue, 
called Tiphereth Israel (The Splendor of Israel). They furthermore en- 
gaged private teachers to nurture their children in the history, rites, 
language, and ideals of Israel. In 1887, too, as if to confirm further their 
hard- won secureness in this wilderness which they had converted, a post 
office was granted them, to be succeeded, in 1917, by the R. F. D. 

But these final beginnings did not mark the end of their adversities, 
for, financially, they were still actually insecure. When, in the early nineties, 
the prices for farm products were so low, the farmers fell into arrears. 
They borrowed money, they mortgaged their farms to certain loan associa- 
tions, they could not pay the interest when it fell due. Mortgages were in 
peril of foreclosure. The Baron de Hirsch Fund — of which, more later — 
took over the mortgages, allowing the farmers to discharge their debts in 
small installments, at a low rate of interest. Finally, in 1900, the Alliance 
Land Trust determined to turn over to the Baron de Hirsch Fund the 
future management of the colony. 

In the years following 1901, the farmers have had an ally in a canning 
factory, which, undertaken in that year by the Allivine Co. after a house- 
to-house canvas made in 1900-1901 in Norma, Alliance, Rosenhayn, Carmel, 
and Garton Road, to ascertain the usefulness and prospects of the enterprise, 
was built accordingly, near the C. R. R. depot in Norma. For several years, 
the Allivine Co., seeing that many of the farmers had not the money or 
the credit with which to obtain the fertilizers needed by the sandy, naturally 
infertile soil, furnished them, on condition that the produce was to be 
brought to their factory. For the farmers it was advantageous to have a 
local market, so as to be independent of the shippers at the local stations 
and of the not too reliable commission merchants in the cities. The factory 
has also provided work for the young people of the colonies. On the 
other hand, the enterprise has thrived; it was leased in 1915 to a corpora- 
tion which purchased it in 1919, and continues to operate it. 

Alliance properly includes a section known as Six Points, about two 
miles from Brotmanville and close to Alliance. The Jewish Agricultural 
and Industrial Aid Society purchased the area in 1907, and divided it into 
farms of twenty five acres each, which were sold to Jewish settlers on 
moderate terms. 

In Norma and Brotmanville, there are a few who own farms in Alii- 



16 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

ance or Six Points, but the great majority work in factories in their own 
localities or in Vineland. 

Rosenhayn, about seven miles equidistant between Vineland and 
Bridgeton, was colonized, in the same year as Alliance, by six Jewish 
families, whom, too, the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society helped settle. They 
too, had to clear the luxuriantly-wooded land ; their hardships were in every 
detail like to those of their fellows in adversity in Alliance, if not indeed 
worse; for when, in crying need of financial support over the critical first 
period they appealed to the Society, they were practically ignored. Whereat, 
they abandoned their holdings and the colony ceased. 

A little later, other families, learning of the brightening prospects of 
the colonists in Alliance, bought land in Rosenhayn ; some settled in the 
colony at once, while others remained in the city working until they had 
enough money to pay for their land. Outsiders never were so concerned 
about the colonists of Rosenhayn as they were about those of Alliance; what 
Rosenhayn is, is entirely the achievement of its people. As happened in 
Alliance, a shirt factory was after a short time smarted there, which, because 
it was in a large building, near the railroad station, they called "The Hotel". 
So that they who otherwise would have continued in the city could now 
make their home in the colony. They may, however, scarcely be taken 
account of as farmers, for their work was principally away from their 
farms. 

Carmel was the achievement of Michael Heilprin, well-known as 
scholar, 1 author, philanthropist, idealist. A native of what has been Russian 
Poland, he was well-educated both as Jew and as European. At twenty 
(1843), he went to Hungary to advocate Hungarian liberty, and became 
acquainted, meanwhile, with Kossuth who advised him to go to America. 
Coming in 1856, to Philadelphia, he forthwith gave himself unwaveringly to 
the anti-slavery cause. When, in the Eighties, the fugitive Jews began to 
pour into the Lmited States, he devoted his entire time and energy to those 
activities of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society which we have noticed. Such 
colonization, he believed, was a solution of the Jewish problem. Various 
influential men, chief among them was the late Jacob Schiff, sympathized 
with his purpose, and offered to cooperate. In 1882. he secured the area. 
now known as Carmel, lying about five miles equidistant between Millville 
and Bridgeton and about three miles south of Rosenhayn; and he settled 
seventeen families there. To be sure, they suffered the pioneers' privations 
and hardships which we are already familiar with; to be sure there were 
those who, discouraged, abandoned their farms and departed. But their 
farms were soon taken over by fresh immigrant arrivals, and still others 



"•Jewish Encyc. Vol. VI. 



THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 17 

came. Heartened by Heilprin's energetic guardianship, they all determined 
to remain. 

When on May Tenth, 1888, Heilprin suddenly died at Summit, New- 
Jersey, the people of Carmel were orphaned. They valued his cooperation, 
they loved him for his idealism ; no one who knew him has aught but lauded 
him. Their fatherlessness came home to them with particular keenness 
when, shortly after, their situation was again so grave as to call for im- 
mediate aid. Fortunately, they attracted the timely friendship of the Rabbi 
Sabato Morais of Philadelphia, who sent an appeal to Baron de Hirsch. 
The response was Five Thousand Dollars, which were distributed among the 
colonists according to their needs as ascertained by Moses Klein, whom the 
Jewish Emigrant Society of Philadelphia had sent for the purpose. With- 
out doubt, this little assistance, by tiding the colonists over, saved the colony 
Garton Road, situated about two and one half miles west of Rosenhayn, 
was started by an immigrant in 1888. As soon as he settled there some 
people from Bridgeton, a city about five miles distant, and a few from the 
other colonies mentioned, joined him. In 1901, the colony had thirteen 
families. Owing in part to the better soil on which the colony was located, 
and in part to the comparative lateness of its beginning, the farmers of 
Garton Road had not all those first adversities which were the lot of the 
other colonists ; they have, indeed, always seemed to be a little more suc- 
cessful than the others . 

Following is a brief statistical survey of settlements of Alliance, Norma, 
Rosenhayn, Carmel, and Garton Road for the year 1901 : 



18 



JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



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THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 19 

We cannot well omit Woodbine, if our account of South Jersey colonies 
is to be complete. But, since Woodbine was the creation of the Baron de 
Hirsch Fund, a digression on the personality and aims of the endower can- 
not but explain the history of the colony. 

Baron Maurice de Hirsch was born in Munich, in 1831. By dint of 
his alert, swift mind, persevering application, and genius for large affairs, 
he became one of the chief captains of industry and financiers of Europe. 
So struck was he with the magnificent humanitarian enterprise of the 
Alliance Israelite Universelle, that, in 1879, he bestowed on the Alliance a 
million francs for more schools. When in the course of expansion, the 
Alliance ran into deficit, Baron de Hirsch did not fail to make the shortage 
good. 

Only one of his world-wide, unstinted benefactions, that of promoting 
the emigration of Jews from Russia and endowing a fund for their coloniza- 
tion in America, concerns us here particularly. As soon as he learned of the 
bitter persecution in Russia, he offered that government fifty million francs 
with which to improve the educational opportunities of its Jews, hoping 
that emigration might be largely averted by better conditions. However, 
the Czar's government insisted on administering the endowment contrarily 
to the donor's idea ; whereat, Baron de Hirsch withdrew his offer, and turned 
to colonization. 

Accordingly, with a capital of close to $10,000,000, he endowed an asso- 
ciation formed in England, known as the Jewish Colonization Association. 
Its ends he stated to be: 

"To assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any part of Europe 
or Asia — and principally from countries in which they may for the time 
being be subjected to any special taxes or political or other disabilities — 
to any parts of the world, and to form and establish colonies in various parts 
of North and South America and other countries, for agricultural, com- 
mercial, and other purposes." 

Writing on these aims in the "Forum", August, 1891, he said: "In 
the lands where Jews have been permitted to acquire landed property, where 
they have found opportunity to devote themselves to agriculture, they have 
proved themselves excellent farmers. For example, in Hungary they form 
a very large part of the tillers of the soil; and this fact is acknowledged to 
such an extent that the high Catholic clergy in Hungary almost exclusively 



20 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

have Jews as tenants on mortmain properties, and almost all large land- 
holders give preference to the Jews on account of their industry, their recti- 
tude, and their dexterity. These are facts that cannot be hidden, and that 
have force; so that the anti-Semitic movement, which for a long time has 
flourished in Hungary, must expire. My own personal experience, too, has 
led me to recognize that the Jews have very good ability in agriculture. I 
have seen this personally in the Jewish agricultural colonies of Turkey; and 
the reports from the expedition that I have sent to the Argentine Republic 
plainly show the same fact. These convictions led me to my activity to 
better the unhappy lot of the poor, downtrodden Jews; and my efforts shall 
show that the Jews have not lost the agricultural qualities that their fore- 
fathers possessed. I shall try to make for them a new home in different 
lands, where, as free farmers on their own soil, they can make themselves 
useful to the country." 

In the spirit of this statement, the Baron caused investigations to be 
made in Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Argentine. Deciding upon the last- 
named place as the most suitable for agricultural development, he delegated 
his agents to purchase large tracts of land there. The colonies which were 
established in Argentine are in existence today. 

In 1889, new persecutions, political and religious, again impelled the 
Jews to emigrate to the United States. Oscar S. Straus called the Baron's 
attention to the new situation, and in 1891, there was incorporated, under 
the laws of the State of New York, the Baron de Hirsch Fund with a 
capital of $2,400,000, the income from which was to be used to ameliorate 
the conditions of the Jewish immigrants from Russia and Roumania ; to 
transfer immigrants, who were willing and fit to go, to other towns in the 
United States, where the labor conditions were more promising, or where 
they had friends, or relatives to help them out until they became self- 
supporting ; to teach trades to certain immigrants ; to give others a training 
in agriculture; to teach them the English language, with a view to raising 
the standard of living of the Jewish immigrants in America and to making 
them loyal and devoted citizens of their adopted country. 

The original trustees to administer the Fund were: M. S. Isaacs, Presi- 
dent; Jacob H. Schiff, Vice-President; Jesse Seligman, Treasurer; Julius 
Goldman, Honorary Secretary; Henry Rice, James H. Hoffman, and Oscar 
S. Straus, of New York; Mayer Sulzberger and W. B. Hackenburg. of 
Philadelphia. 

To carry out the agricultural aim of the Fund, the trustees, after in- 
vestigating sites in various parts of the country, purchased, for $37,500, a 
tract of land comprising about 5,300 acres, and lying in Cape May Conn y, 
New fersey, fifty-six miles from Philadelphia. Here, was inaugurated on 



THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 21 

August 28, 1891, the agricultural and industrial colony known as Woodbine. 

Although farming was to be the chief occupation, a certain portion of 
the land was reserved for the development of a town to serve as a market 
for the farm products, and there factories were put up to employ those 
who could not earn a livelihood by farming. Fifty families came; they 
cleared away the dense scrub oak, and built houses. When, however, they 
began to plow, they found the soil was so sandy and poor as to require 
a large quantity of fertilizer, and, therein, an outlay which the farmers 
were unable to meet. Here we re-encounter the now familiar combination 
of adverse soil, swamp mosquitoes, scant social and educational facilities, 
which disheartened the most optimistic, and goaded the less stubborn into 
returning to the city. 

It must, in candor, be said that, as an agricultural colony, Woodbine 
has, until of late, made very little progress. It has really become an in- 
dustrial town with a few farms around it. With part of the income from 
the Baron de Hirsch Fund, streets were laid out, a power-house was built, 
a lighting system and public works were installed. 

Machine shops, clothing factories, and hat factories were established. 
In 1892, a cloak factory was started by the firm of Meyer Jonasson & 
Co., affording employment to about one hundred persons, most of whom 
lived on farms at quite a distance from the village. In the year of nation- 
wide economic depression which followed, the cloak industry of Woodbine 
was also affected. After a brief struggle, the factory was shut down. More 
farmers, unable to earn a livelihood, left the colony. Of those who re- 
mained, some hired out to cut wood, others to remove stumps of trees; 
some of the younger folks went to Ocean View, near Sea Isle City, to seek 
employment in the tomato-canning factory, while still others picked huckle- 
berries. 

Conditions looked more favorable, when in 1894, Daniel & Blumenthal, 
of Philadelphia, opened a clothing factory in Woodbine. Other factories 
were started gradually, making the outlook still brighter. And with new 
Lithuanians, and immigrants from Odessa and from Roumania, the popula- 
tion began to increase. 

Following is a brief statistical account of Woodbine for 1901. More 
detailed data will be given in the chapters dealing with the present status 
of the Jewish colonies in South Jersey. 



22 



JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 
TABLE 2 
WOODBINE, 1901 



Total population 


2500 




Percentage of Jewish inhabitants 


90% 




Number of families of Jewish farmers 


52 




Number of individuals comprising the 52 families 


400 




Average acreage of farm 


15 




Total number of acres owned by 52 families 


785 




Number of acres under cultivation 


500 




Value of farms 


$50,000.00 




Number of acres of Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School 


300 




Number of acres under cultivation 


121 




Average individual income per week 


$7.30 
$675.00 
175 


Average earnings, per family per annum 


Number of cottages 




Number of cottages owned by the B. de H. F 


14 


Average cost of construction per cottage 


$1000.00 




Estimated total cost of all cottages 


$157,450.00 


Amount paid in 


$58,200.00 





In 1894, the Board of Trustees of the Fund instituted "The Baron de 
Hirsch Agricultural School" on a place southwest of the town of Woodbine, 
and about three hundred acres in extent. Started in a small way, it has been 
constantly enlarged as required. The large schoolhouse, which could ac- 
commodate about two hundred and fifty students, contained, besides class- 
rooms, a Synagogue, an Assembly Hall, and administrative offices. In ad- 
dition, there were a large dining room and kitchen, dormitories for the 
students, cottages for the staff of teachers and superintendent, and all the 
useful outhouses that go with a well-established agricultural school of that 
size. It had also a model poultry plant, as well as orchards, vineyards, 
and greenhouses. 

The School was the reward of the efforts of H. L. Sabsovich, a well- 
known student of agriculture and agricultural chemistry, who came from 
Russia in the summer of 1888. After serving- for a while as chemist of the 



THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 23 

Colorado Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, he was in 1891 ap- 
pointed agricultural adviser to the colony of Woodbine. He for a number 
of years had an intimate part in the social, economic, and political progress 
of the colony. 

The aim of the School, both of its founders and of its faculty of ex- 
perts, was "to raise intelligent, practical farmers." Tuition and maintenance 
have always been free, to any young man of the Jewish faith, who was over 
fourteen years of age, of good moral character, good health, and had an 
elementary education. 

In the first class, organized in October, 1894, were fifteen young men, 
all from Woodbine. For several years the classes remained small, attract- 
ing very few men from the cities. Yet, for the School to really succeed in 
its ideals, it was essential that more students be attracted from the congested 
centers of population. 

To this end, Mr. Sabsovich, who was superintendent of the Baron de 
Hirsch Agricultural School for ten years, made a tour through New York 
City, Boston, and Baltimore, and aroused the interest of some young Jewish 
immigrants, who shortly left for Woodbine to enroll in the Agricultural 
School. The number of students fluctuated from year to year, rising at times 
to over one hundred, falling at other times considerably below. 

The two-year course of study was chiefly practical. The first year was 
devoted mainly to general agriculture. The second year, each student could 
specialize in one department : horticulture, floriculture, poultry, dairying. 

To secure the most desirable positions for the graduates, no amount of 
effort was spared. As was well pointed out by the superintendent of the 
School : "The School aims to guard against having their young men ex- 
ploited, and we only seek to fill those positions which, we feel, would be to 
the best advantage of the student and where his interests would be best 
served. In order to bring this about, the co-operation and assistance of the 
old students is sought. These men are urged to keep in touch with the farms 
that are worked by progressive methods in different sections of the coun- 
try where they are employed, and where the employers have a reputation 
of giving fair treatment to their employees." 

Quite a number of the graduates have made farming their vocation. 
By means of a United States map, on which were noted the locations, and 
the subsequent changes of situation, of the students, the School maintained 
a graphic survey of their distribution. The map shows at a glance that many 
of the graduates, far from remaining in the Eastern States, have made their 
way not only to the Middle West but even to the far West, as far as the 
Pacific Coast. 

Of those who pursued farming as a career, some own their own farms 



24 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

and others are managers of farms. The School is proud to point to the 
significant fact that, among its graduates, one is the director of an experi- 
ment station and a leading agricultural expert ; a number are teachers in 
agricultural schools and colleges. The former editor of the "Jewish 
Farmer", a paper devoted to the interests of the farmers of the Jewish faith, 
and some of the members of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid 
Society were also graduates from the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School. 

For a number of years, the Baron de Hirsch Fund maintained a resident 
Rabbi, a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, who 
conducted religious services every Saturday, gave religious instruction to 
the students during the week, and interested himself in the general welfare 
of the community. The importance of such comradeship has been far- 
reaching and invaluable. For the Jewish young men coming to the Agri- 
cultural School have, in accord with the moral and spiritual motives of the 
founders, become not merely good farmers, but good Jewish farmers, re- 
gardful in their daily lives, of the moral ideals of the Jewish sages. 

Within recent date, the School has been closed by the Trustees of the 
Baron de Hirsch Fund, who are contemplating an agricultural school in 
Peekskill, New York, a more suitable location for various reasons : the unfit- 
ness of Woodbine's soil for a diversity of crops from which the students 
could select, the mosquitoes which swarm when the men are working in the 
fields, the remoteness from any large market, particularly from New York, 
where the headquarters of the B. de H. F. are located. However wise the 
trustees have been in their decision to move the School to Peekskill, as the 
writer, for one, thinks they were, he cannot refrain from saying that the 
immediate moral effect of the closing of the School upon the community 
of Woodbine was anything but desirable. 

To be sure, the writer has not been unmindful of another agricultural 
school for Jewish young men, founded on more or less similar principles, 
and similarly supported with philanthropic means; namely, "The National 
Farm School" in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. But, since 
that school has no direct relation to Jewish Colonization, any account of 
it would take the writer afield. Wherefore, too, nothing need be said here 
concerning the many Jewish farmers, who are isolated and scattered over 
the country, beyond observing that, in certain regions of New York and 
Connecticut and of other states as well, the number of Jewish farmers is 
increasing rapidly; they may, in time, constitute settlements similar to those 
under consideration. 

But the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society deserves a 
fuller account, particularly of its helpfulness to the Jewish colonies in 
South Jersey The B. de H. F., as we have noted, had, for final end, the 
facilitating of the adjustment of the Jewish immigrants to their new en- 



THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 25 

vironments; — a wide, inclusive field of service. To make its promotion of 
agriculture more efficient, it was deemed best to turn this phase of activity 
over to a distinct organization. And so, the Jewish Agricultural and In- 
dustrial Aid Society was inaugurated on February 19, 1900, for the purpose 
of taking full charge of the agricultural labors which were formerly under 
the supervision of the B. de H. F. It might interest the reader to note the 
objects of the new organization, as definitely and concisely told in its Articles 
of Incorporation: 

1. "The encouragement and direction of agriculture among Jews, resi- 
dents of the United States, principally immigrants from Russia, Roumania 
and Galicia, the removal of such persons dwelling in the crowded sections 
of the cities to agricultural and industrial districts, and provision for their 
temporary support. 

2. "The grant of loans to mechanics, artisans, and tradesmen, to en- 
able them to secure larger earnings and accumulate savings for the acquisi- 
tion of homes in suburban, agricultural, and industrial districts. 

3. "The removal of industries now pursued in tenements or shops in 
crowded sections of the cities, by aiding manufacturers and contractors to 
transfer their shops and business to agricultural and industrial districts 
where their employees may continue to labor and acquire individual homes. 

4. "The encouragement of cooperative creameries and factories and of 
storage houses for canning and preserving fruit and vegetables." 

From the Articles of Incorporation, it will be seen that it was the 
original purpose of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society not 
to limit its functions solely to agriculture. In the beginning, industrial and 
allied matters were dominant, but, in the course of time, they were more 
and more subordinated to the agricultural design. In 1901, another organ- 
ization was started as a branch of the Society, under the name of Industrial 
Removal Office, to which was assigned the removal of immigrants from 
the congested cities into sparsely settled industrial communities. Two years 
after its inception, the new society was placed under separate management 
under the direction of a special committee, and, in 1907, it severed entirely 
its relationship from the mother organization. Whereby the Jewish Agri- 
cultural and Industrial Aid Society was left free to look solely after the 
agricultural concern of the colonies, and it has since become a very power- 
ful influence in the development of Jewish agriculture in this country. 

Besides the main office in New York, the Society conducts an office 
in Philadelphia, which has charge of the loans made to farmers in the 
colonies of Alliance, Rosenhayn, Carmel, and in the adjacent territory. 
It supervises, also, the factories put up in the colonies by the Baron de 
Hirsch Fund, the Alliance Land Trust, and the Hebrew Emigrant Aid So- 
ciety. Largely, too, the Society renders financial assistance to individuals 



26 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

who would be farmers. The financial assistance, perhaps for the purchase 
of the farm and the necessary equipment, is not a charity, but a loan at five 
per cent, interest. 

This Farm Loan Department of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial 
Aid Society serves not the colonial settlements alone, but also Jewish farmers 
and would-be farmers in every state of the Union and in Canada. The Fed- 
eral Farm Loan Act, approved July 17, 1916, to assist farmers throughout 
the country, affects very little the work of the Society. While the national 
government, by that Act, furnishes loans to farmers to the extent of 50% 
of the value of the land which so constitute really a first mortgage on the 
holding, the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society will advance 
funds to the Jewish farmer on second and third mortgage, and on still closer 
margin, in case of emergency. The Society offers its loans on business 
principles, yet not without a philanthropic spirit. The agent delegated to 
collect the principal and interest due on the loans, far from being arbitrary, 
rather discreetly allows deferment of payment. Such a Society still meets 
many opportunities to serve the Jewish farmer. Furthermore, since a 
number of the applicants for loans, ignorant of the ways and methods of 
handling a farm, would, therefore, not knowing how to put the money to 
the best possible use, not only suffer financial loss, but also be so dis- 
couraged as to abandon the farm, the Society supervises loans not only 
for the purpose of safeguarding the investment, but also to give timely 
advice to the borrowers. 

Through its Farm Finding Bureau, the Society helps city people to 
locate farms, and to keep clear of fleecing agents and land sharks. The 
Bureau seeks to determine whether the farm best meets the need of the 
buyer — for, he, likely, would choose unwisely — to give him an intelligent con- 
ception of farm-life, of its distinctive requirements, its actualities which he 
may but vaguely have any true idea of — and thus, gradually, to build up a 
permanent, progressive Jewish farming class. The "green" notion of farm- 
ing as an ideal way of satisfying the craving for outdoor life, of leaving 
behind the hurly-burly of city life is one of the most difficult and at the 
same time one of the most important problems that the Society has to 
face, for the success or failure of a new farmer will depend in a large 
measure on the wise or unwise choice of the location of the farm and its 
environment. 

One of the greatest undertakings of the Society was the promotion of 
the educational and social morale and the Americanization of the Jewish 
youth of the colonies l>v the creation of the Bureau of Educational Activi- 
ties, and the appointment of a director who, since 1901, has been endeavor- 
ing to carry out these noble purposes, i- -till engaged in the work to a limited 
extent, and. with his wife and daughter, has introduced innovations, such 



THEIR FOUNDERS AND PROMOTERS. 27 

as music, gardening and hygiene, highly beneficial to the colonists. This 
gentleman is Mr. Mounier, well-known for his liberalism and idealism. 

Four libraries were formed, and the boys and girls were encouraged and 
urged to read good literature. The need of a hall to be the center of the 
educational and social activities came almost immediately to the mind of 
the director. He suggested and then was allowed to make plans. The 
stipulation was that the colonists were to buy the site, at least one acre in 
size, in a suitable location, while the Society would do the rest. Two halls 
were erected: one in Rosenhayn, and the other in Carmel. 

He also planned, in 1902, to give musical instruction to the children, 
but the Society held at first that music was a luxury and so outside the 
scope of the Society's legitimate work. Later, it agreed to pay half the cost 
of the music lessons for those who were willing to take them. Gradually, 
as the colonists realized the value of a knowledge of music, all subsidies 
were withdrawn. 

For several years, he conducted evening schools in each colony; he 
delivered many lectures on topics of interest ; he arranged social gatherings 
for the boys and girls ; he would come from Vineland, his place of residence, 
over very rough roads, no matter how inclement the weather happened to 
be, to direct the libraries in the different colonies. He took full charge of 
the halls to see that they were properly cared for. He gave instruction in 
hygiene and agriculture ; and during the summer months he supervised the 
gardens that were cultivated by boys and girls of the colonies. 

The Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society entered, in May 
1908, upon the publication of the only agricultural paper in Yiddish in 
this country, "The Jewish Farmer." Monthly it brings to the Jewish farm- 
ers, who are unable to read English, expert advice in agriculture : articles 
tell how to prevent insects and worms from damaging the crops, how to 
spray the fruit trees, in what manner to rotate crops, etc. It maintains a 
"Question and Answer" column, to which the farmers resort for informa- 
tion. It brings them sympathy, and encouragement ; it keeps them in touch 
with their fellow-tillers of the soil. 

To interest the Jewish youth in the science of agriculture and to en- 
courage them to stay on the farm, the Society instituted, in 1908, the award, 
by competition, of free scholarships, which give the sons and daughters of 
Jewish farmers an opportunity to attend special short courses in certain 
agricultural colleges during the winter months, when, the farm-work being 
slack, the parents can easily spare them for twelve weeks. The Society 
has awarded on the average of fifteen scholarships a year. The boys and 
girls are greatly benefited by the courses they pursue, for, when they come 
home, they put their knowledge to practical use. The influence is felt not 
only in the improvement of the farms of the students themselves, but 



28 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

also in the general improvement in farming conditions and farm practice in 
the communities in which they live. The results have fulfilled the expecta- 
tions and justified the expenditures of the Society. 

The Society also conducts field work among Jewish farmers : it sends 
agricultural extension specialists to the colonies as well as to other rural 
sections of the country. These specialists bring the Jewish farmers the latest 
agricultural knowledge; they visit the farms and give expert agricultural 
advice; they endeavor to organize farmers into groups for purposes of 
instruction in agriculture by means of lectures, for collective buying and 
selling whenever possible, and for the purpose of advancing social interests 
among them. The last phase of farm life is of the highest importance, 
for the presence of social life is a great determining factor in keeping the 
younger element on the farm. 



CHAPTER 3 
THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 

The material of this chapter the writer compiled from community 
studies he made in the colonies in 1919. The accuracy of it will appear 
from the circumstances that, well acquainted as he was with the colonists 
in whose locality he served for six years as Director of Cultural Activities, 
he obtained information which would by others have been unobtainable ; 
and that, being there himself in constant touch, he could probe his data 
over a year's space. 

We begin with the socially fundamental survey of the population 
(1919): 

TABLE 3 
POPULATION, ALL COLONIES, 1919. 





Rosen- 
hayn 


Carmel 


Garton 
Road 


Norma 


Brot- 

manville 
Alliance 


Wood- 
bine 


Total 


No. Jewish families. . . 


87 


69 


30 


75 


40 


280 


581 


No. non-Jewish fam- 
ilies 


78 


20 


24 


45 


21 


70 


258 




Total No. Jewish 
People 


388 


321 


140 


375 


185 


1330 


2739 




No. under 5 years. . . . 


36 


38 


16 


55 


25 


156 


326 


No. from 6 to 10, inc. 


52 


57 


15 


52 


20 


170 


366 


No. from 11 to 14, inc. 


39 


49 


15 


45 


15 


112 


275 


No. from 15 to 16, inc. 


21 


19 


8 


15 


11 


64 


138 


No. 17 and over 


250 


158 


86 


208 


114 


798 


1614 


No. born in the U. S.. 


190 


177 


66 


195 


118 


638 


1384 


No. born abroad 


198 


144 


74 


180 


67 


692 


1355 


No. naturalized 


146 


92 


51 


131 


46 


512 


978 


No. declared intentions 


13 


11 


3 


6 


4 


48 


85 


No. aliens 


39 


41 


20 


43 


17 


132 


292 


No. settlers over 15 
years 


28 


24 


10 


35 


27 


95 


219 ' 


No. foster children. . . 


3 


35 


2 





2 


3 


45 



29 



30 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

While the non-Jewish population, the Italian element in particular, is 
increasing, the Jewish population is decreasing. And while the majority 
of the Italian young people remain at home and work hard, by the side 
of their parents, on the farm, most of the Jewish adolescents, caring 
not at all for farm-life, hankering after change, after new, different com- 
panions, lured by the city — go to the city at the first opportunity ; where- 
fore we find the average size of the Jewish family to range from 4.46 
persons in Rosenhayn to 5 in Norma — a low average when the natural size 
of the families is considered. This vital fact as well as their lower standard 
of living will account in a measure for the great prosperity of a proportion 
of the Italians. Note (Table 3) the significant fact that very few of the 
first Jewish settlers have remained in any of the colonies. Either they 
have died, or they have moved to other farming areas, or, for the sake of 
better economic and cultural opportunities, to the cities. How many have, 
however, been in the colonies for fifteen years and over, may be seen in 
the same table. 

The "foster children" enumerated at the bottom of the table are 
orphans, placed by the Juvenile Aid Society of Philadelphia in homes in 
the colonies. A visitor, maintained by the Society, secures the best homes 
available, and then visits them as often as necessary, sees that they are well 
cared for by their foster parents, and at certain intervals escorts them to 
the city for a physical examination. The children attend the public and 
religious schools in their communities. 

It will be observed that 35 of these boys and girls are placed in Carmel, 
while only 3 are in Rosenhayn, 3 in Woodbine, two in each of the colonies 
of Garton Road and Alliance, and none in Norma. This is simply because 
more families are willing to take care of foster children in Carmel. 

Garton Road is entirely agricultural. With its 30 Jewish families it 
is a small colony, although the number of Jewish farms has more than 
doubled since 1901. 

The two colonies of Brotmanville and Alliance are combined, since it 
is difficult to say where one ends and the other begins. Then (a fact which 
will be returned to), all the children from Brotmanville attend the Alliance 
Public School. Indeed, both colonies combined, including farmers and 
non- farmers, have only 40 Jewish families. To compare the 1919 figures 
of Alliance and Brotmanville with those of 1901 (Table 1) is difficult, 
for the figures of eighteen years ago were compiled for Norma and Alli- 
ance jointly, and no doubt the compiler included in those figures the data 
for Brotmanville without even mentioning its name. In the writer's survey, 
the colony of Norma was studied separately, while, as noted, Alliance and 
Brotmanville were joined. 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 31 

The largest of the colonies is Woodbine, whose Jewish population is 
almost as large as that of all the other colonies in toto, although, from 1901 
to 1919, it diminished by about 900 persons. The relation of Woodbine's 
population to its essentially industrial character deserves further considera- 
tion. 

The Jewish population of the colonies has, then, grown very little, if 
at all, in almost two decades. Some of the settlements, on the contrary, 
may be said to have receded; for, while most communities in this country 
have increased their number considerably, by leaps and bounds even, the 
Jewish colonies have been practically at a standstill ; and in a dynamic 
world, a static condition is tantamount to recession. If the total population 
of the settlements did increase, it is due in a large measure to the 
influx of peoples of other nationalities, particularly of Italians and of Poles. 

Since, as Prof. Giddings has well said, the experience of getting a 
living has a greater influence upon the people than the teachings of uni- 
versities, pulpits, and schools, we may not, if we are clearly to understand 
the social conditions of the colonies, overlook their economic conditions. 
These may be illustrated by the status of three typical families — one, suc- 
cessful, one average, and one poor: 



Table IV follows on Page 32. 



32 



JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



TABLE 4 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS— THE LEVEL. 1919 





No. 1 


No. 2 


No. 3 


Does the farmer own all of his farm? 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 




Total no. of acres in the farm 


55 


30 


20 




No. of acres of improved land 


48 


25 


16 


Total value of the farm 


$7000 


$3800 


$2200 




Value of all buildings on the farm 


$2000 


$1300 


$700 




Value of implements and machinery 


$1100 


$400 


$200 




Total amount of debt or encumbrance on farm . . 


$2000 


$1800 


$1500 


Amount expended for feed for domestic animals 
and poultry 


$200 


$100 


$75 


Amount expended for manure and fertilizer 


$1100 


$700 


$250 


Amount expended in cash for farm labor 


$400 


$200 


$50 


Estimated value of house or room rent and board 
furnished farm laborers in addition to cash 
wages reported above 


$175 


$0 


$0 


No. of horses 


2 


1 1 




Value of horses 


$375 


$150 


$100 




Number of cows 


5 


2 


1 


Value of cows 


$550 


$200 


$95 


No. of poultry 


100 


60 


40 


Does the farmer own a tractor? 


No 


No 


No 




Does he own an automobile? 


Yes 


No 


No 




Does he have a telephone? 


Yes 


Yes 


No 


Is water piped into his house? 


No 


No 


No 




Does the house have gas or electric light? 


Yes 


No 


No 




No 


No 


No 




No. of acres in hay and forage 


7 


5 


3 




Quantity harvested 


12 Tons 


S Tons 


1 Tons 




Quantity Sold 


\'i ni,' 


None 


None 


No. of acres in grains and seeds 


10 


6 


3 




Quantity harvested 


350 bush. 


iso hush. 


80 bush. 


( Hiantitv sold 


None 


None 


None 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 
TABLE 4— Continued 



33 



• 


No. 1 


No. 2 


No. 3 


No. of acres in white potatoes 


5 


3 


1 




Quantity harvested 


200 bush. 


110 bush. 


30 bush. 




Quantity sold 


125 bush. 


75 bush. 


15 bush. 




No. of acres in sweet potatoes 


6 


4 


2 




Quantity harvested 


275 bush. 


170 bush. 


75 bush. 




Quantity sold 


250 bush. 


130 bush. 


65 bush. 




Value of all vegetables grown for home use only. 


$150 


$100 


$75 


No. of acres of vegetables produced for sale 


16 


7 


6 


Quantity harvested: 








Green beans 


240 bush. 


100 bush. 


40 bush. 




Green peas 


160 bush. 


55 bush. 


65 bush. 




Tomatoes 


1000 bush. 


400 bush. 


200 bush. 


Peppers 


2000 bush. 


800 bush. 


350 bush. 


Total value of the four vegetables mentioned 
above 


$2900 


$1300 


$650 




Value of all other vegetables 


$300 


$200 


$125 




No. of apple trees 


30 


15 


10 




Quantity harvested 


120 bush. 


50 bush. 


20 bush. 




Quantity sold 


75 bush. 


30 bush. 


None 


No. of peach trees 


20 


10 


2 




Quantity harvested 


100 bush. 


40 bush. 


8 bush. 


Ouantity sold 


50 bush. 


10 bush. 


None 




No. of pear trees 


6 


4 





Quantity harvested 


15 bush. 


10 bush. 


None 




Ouantitv sold 


None 


None 


None 




No. of cherry trees 


6 


3 


1 


Quantity harvested 


25 crates 


10 crates 


2 crates 




Quantity sold 


15 crates 


5 crates 


None 




No. of acres in strawberries 


7 


4 


2V 2 


Quantity harvested 


300 crates 


125 crates 


65 crates 




Value 


$1800 


$800 


$450 


Total cash income from farm products 


$4575 


$2400 


$1185 


Total farm expenditures 


$2075 


$1125 


$485 


Net cash income 


$2500 


$1275 


$700 



34 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

Under the heading "Number of acres of improved land" are included : 
all land regularly tilled, land in pastures that has been cleared or tilled, 
land lying fallow, land in gardens and orchards, and land occupied by 
buildings and barnyards. The total value of the farm is the amount for 
which the farm would sell. It includes all the buildings and improve- 
ments but not implements and machinery. The heading "Value of imple- 
ments and machinery" includes all the tools, wagons, carriages, harnesses ; 
all engines, automobiles and other machinery. These items are in accord- 
ance with the schedule of the United States Census of Agriculture. 



Tabic 5 follows on Page 35. 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 



35 



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36 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

Very rarely does one come across a Jewish farmer in these parts who 
specializes in one kind of crop or makes a specialty of dairying, poultry, or 
any other single branch of agriculture. Almost everyone raises straw- 
berries and what is known as truck, that is, a variety of vegetables, such 
as sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas. Some farmers 
raise fruit, concord grapes, pears, delicious peaches — but they are com- 
paratively few. The crops are taken to the nearest railroad station and 
either sold to local buyers or shipped to commission merchants in New 
York, Philadelphia and Boston. In the former case, the farmer knows 
immediately what he is getting for his crops, while, in the latter case, he 
has to wait for returns till a day or so later. In either case, the farmer 
is exploited by these so-called middlemen. 1 It would end their profiteering, 
if the totality or the majority of the farmers of the section cooperated and 
sold the commodities direct to the consumer. Some of the farmers have 
already united 2 for the purpose of purchasing agricultural supplies in large 
quantities at wholesale prices, and their efforts are proving quite successful. 
They need now to organize for the purpose of selling their products in 
such a way as to receive the full benefit of their labor. 

• Some of the farmers sell their berries, tomatoes, and some of the other 
crops to the canning houses of Norma or Bridgeton. This outlet has its 
advantages and disadvantages. The canning factories usually contract with 
the farmers in advance as to the prices to be paid. Should the market 
price be higher during the season, the farmers are losers; if, on the other 
hand, the prices are lower, the farmers are gainers. 

In Garton Road, each Jewish family owns and operates a farm. In 
Rosenhayn, the proportion is forty-four families that farm for a livelihood 
to forty-three that earn their living at different occupations. In Carmel, 
the proportion is two to one — forty-six farmers and twenty-three non- 
farmers. Norma's farming population is smaller than that of the others. 
with only twenty-eight families that are farming and forty-seven that are 
not. In Alliance and Brotmanville, the situation is reversed. Here, there 
are only eleven non-farming and twenty-nine farming families. In Wood- 
bine (although it was originally intended for an agricultural settlement), of 
280 lewish families only 26 are farming and 254, not fanning. 

Almost every farmer owns his farm and its equipment, while some have 
their holdings clear of mortgage. Since the average farm i> valued close 
to $4,000.00, it may be said that most of the Jewish fanners are economical- 
ly better situated than is the average workingman in the city, who may be 
earning a higher weekly wage, but who saves less in the year. The wealth 
of a farmer is measured not only by the amount of cash he keeps in the 



'Til,- fewish Farmer, a periodical published monthly by the Jewish Agricultural 
and Industrial Aid Society. 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 37 

savings bank, but by the new farm machinery he purchases, by the addi- 
tional outhouses he constructs, and by the improvements he makes in his 
home. 

The tendency in the last few years has been to increase the size of the 
individual holdings. Most farmers own about thirty acres and some have 
more than twice that number. Since hired farm labor is very scarce 
(1919), and since many of the young boys and girls have gone to the 
city, it is practically impossible for a small family to work a large farm 
efficiently. 

The five thousand acres of Woodbine were, in the beginning, divided 
into fifteen acre plots. While, at first, each farmer was allowed to pur- 
chase fifteen acres only, there was reserved for him the adjacent plot of 
additional fifteen acres, which he may secure, on convincing the authori- 
ties that he is fully capable of handling it. Quite a number of farmers 
have already purchased the second plot of land. 

The farmers would raise more on the same amount of land, if they 
had a better knowledge of agriculture and more efficient tools. Only a 
few have realized the importance of labor-saving -machinery (if we may 
judge by the low figures given in Table 5, for the average value of farm 
implements). That the Jewish farmers generally may secure more modern 
tools and machinery, and learn to farm more scientifically is one of the 
hopes of those who have at heart their success. 

The average net income of the farmers in 1919 given in the above 
Table typifies the amount of cash left at the end of the year, after the 
deduction of all expenditures involved in the raising of the crops. It also 
excludes the value of all vegetables grown for home use. The amount 
quoted is at best a rough estimate, for the farmers mostly keep no ac- 
count of income and outgo ; nor, like others, do they readily divulge the 
amount of their earnings. However, it may safely be stated that their 
earnings today and their margin of profit, are higher than they were ever 
before, — their prospects, brighter. 

In Woodbine agriculture seemed to be almost hopeless till a little while 
ago, when some of the. younger men introduced scientific methods and a 
few began to specialize in dairying and poultry raising; then came better 
times. The returns increased, too, with the general rise in prices (prior to 
1920), promoting which condition was the perfected state of the roads lead- 
ing to the seashore resorts not far from Woodbine. Farmers could take 
their crops by automobile truck direct to Sea Isle City, Ocean City, and 
Atlantic City, independently of the commission merchants. 

Woodbine has this great advantage over the other colonies : that all 
the streets and roads are lighted by electricity, while almost all the homes 
have not only electric light but sanitary plumbing. In the other colonies, 
the streets and roads are totally dark at night, and while the non- farmers 



38 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

who reside in the interior of their settlement are fortunate to have their 
homes illumined by gas, the farmers, whose homes are situated in the outly- 
ing districts, resort to the antiquated use of oil lamps. So it is in Garton Road 
and Alliance ; since these colonies are sparsely settled, and are located at 
a distance from the more populous colonies, the gas company does not find 
it profitable to extend the gas mains to their homes. 

Although electric motors can be installed privately to supply the home 
with electricity for various uses, the installation involves so considerable 
an expense that the farmers with more immediate, needful improvements 
to make in their homes, are postponing that innovation. Two farmers have 
installed electric motors in their homes, primarily because they have con- 
verted their homes into boarding houses for the greater part of the year. 
It may well be said that the income from the boarders and not from the 
yield of the field has enabled these men to so improve their homes. 

"Pipeless Heaters" have been introduced in quite a few homes. The 
overwhelming majority of the homes, except in Woodbine, obtain their 
water either by hand-pump or well. Seldom anywhere is water supplied by 
motor power. 

Withal, the farmers in the South Jersey area lose heart sooner than 
farmers elsewhere because of the typically sandy, difficult soil. Without 
the constant application of manure and fertilizer, it yields comparatively 
little. No little expense, beyond the means of most, and more knowledge 
of agronomy than is common are indispensable to making the land more 
productive. Nor may be left out of account the discomfort caused by 
the far-famed South Jersey incursions of mosquitoes from environing 
swamps and marshes, swarming all the spring and summer. 

After laboring under difficulties for years, some farmers have neg- 
lected, if not entirely abandoned, their farming and have become boarding- 
house keepers. Their farms are utilized only to the extent of gardens to 
supply the vegetables needed for their clientele. Most of these men have 
succeeded financially better than they did at farming, and consequently they 
hesitate to return to general farming, even now that farmers are enjoying 
greater prosperity than ever before (1919). And it is quite impossible to 
apply oneself to bo.li occupations with equal energy, because the boarding 
and the farming seasons are more or less coincident: one must be neglected 
for the other. 

So long as this situation prevails, and so long as the Jewish public is 
not enthusiastic about farming but considers farm-life a drudgery and 
misfortune rather than an honorable and wholesome means to a livelihood, 
then it must be said that the outlook for Jewish farming is not very bright. 
Occasionally a rift in the cloud appears — a reassurring sign. Every once in 
a while, we meet in "The Jewish Farmer" with an account of successful 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 



39 



Jewish scientific farmers, who practise the furthest improved methods of 
agriculture. In the issue for January, 1920, we read of one who, by his 
own labor during the slack months, made his eight-room boarding house 
over into a poultry house — the cost of new material being too high. His 
interest in the raising of chickens had been aroused during a short course 
at an agricultural college. Writing enthusiastically of his own progress, 
he suggests that others should follow his footsteps. It may well be that his 
enterprise will point the way to numerous others. 

Many of the pioneers of the colonies have abandoned their farms and 
returned to the cities. While some have succeeded, others of them have 
failed even under the more favorable conditions of urban life. They all 
recall vividly still the adversities they wrestled with in the beginning, when 
they had to bring woodland and brush and bush under a fair state of 
cultivation. The pioneers who have remained and continued farming — 
despite the many vicissitudes and hardships which have left their indelible 
mark — are living denials to the wonted charge that the Jew is not fit for 
farming. 

Their noble example should serve to inspire those many thousands of 
Jews now huddling in the ghettoes of the cities, eking out their scanty liveli- 
hood as sweat shop operators or peddlers — with a right sound attitude 
towards farming, and the impulse to follow in their wake. 

TABLE 6 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 





Rosen- 
hayn 


Carmel 


Garton 
Road 


Norma 


Brot- 

manville 
Alliance 


Wood- 
bine 


Total 


Is there a R. R. 
station? 


Yes 


No' 


Yes 


Yes 


No 


Yes 




What R. R. crosses 
colony? . . 


C.R.R. 
N.J. 




C.R.R. 
N.J. 


C.R.R. 

N.J. 




W. J. & 

Seashore 

R.R. 






Is there a trolley?. . . 


No 


No 


No 


No 


No 


No 




No. of Jewish fam- 
ilies who have tel- 
ephones 


17 


6 


14 


10 


4 


40 


91 


Is there a Postoffice? 


Yes 


No 


No 


Yes 


No 


Yes 




Is there an R. F. D. 
Route? 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 






No. of Jewish fam- 
ilies owning auto- 
mobiles 


9 


4 


8 


7 


8 


42 


78 



40 



JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



In this Table (6) are analysed the transportation and communication 
facilities in the colonies. The railroad does not pass Brotmanville and 
Alliance; their nearest station is at Norma, about three miles distant. Nor 
does it cross Carmel, but a trolley line traverses what is known as the 
Millville Pike, about a mile and a half away, extending into Bridgeton on 
one side, and Millville on the other, the two cities about twelve miles apart. 
In the summer of 1919 for the first time an automobile bus was operated 
hourly on the State Road between Vineland and Bridgeton, about fourteen 
miles apart — a great convenience to the dwellers and to their friends who 
visited them from the city. In the winter, however, the Road becomes so 
rough and broken as to be almost impassable ; not until it will be improved, 
can bus service be maintained during the winter. 

Not only the State Road, but every side road, needs repair. The past 
winter (1919), most of the highways of South Jersey were quagmires. 
Difficulty in transportation, hindering the speedy marketing of goods and 
affecting the schools and the social life, must react fundamentally on the 
farmer's well-being. To be sure, the telephone and automobile made social 
intercourse far easier than they had been. 

Only Rosenhayn, Woodbine, and Norma have post-offices (1919). 
Until about two years ago, there was one in Carmel and one in Alliance. 
But with the remarkable development of the Rural Free Delivery Route, 
they were accorded its much preferred service. However, the farmers of 
the first three colonies who live only a short distance from their post- 
offices may, also have their mail delivered by the R. F. D. Certainly, 
among the recent social and economic improvements, the R. F. D. is not the 
least. It brings the colonist into closer touch with the outside world; it 
delivers to his door the daily paper, the farm journals, and the parcels 
and packages from the mail order houses. It is an invaluable boon to those 
who live a distance from the nearest town. 

TABLE 7 
STORES 





Rosen- 
hayn 


Carmel 


Garton 
Road 


Norma 


Brot- 
manville 
Alliance 


Wood- 
bine 


Total 


No. of stores for gen- 
eral merchandise. . 


2 


2 





1 


1 


3 


9 


No. of groceries 


8 


3 





2 


1 


6 


20 


No. of butcher shops. 


3 


1 





1 


1 


3 


9 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 



41 



There are entirely too many grocery stores in the colony of Rosenhayn. 
Two such stores, instead of eight, are ample to supply the entire com- 
munity. Since each grocer finds it financially impossible to carry a large 
stock of goods of superior quality, those colonists who prefer better goods 
purchase their supplies in the neighboring cities, instead of at their local 
stores. 

In addition to the stores listed in Table 7, there are others that may be 
mentioned. In Rosenhayn, there are three small stores which sell candy and 
cigars ; one is with a barber shop, another in a private dwelling, the third 
contains a pool-table. The post-office functions also as a general store, 
and one grocery store sells toilet articles and some patent medicines. Most 
of the grocery stores have candy and cigars. In Woodbine, there are two 
hardware stores, a fruit store, three candy and cigar stores, and two pool- 
rooms. 



TABLE 8 



INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS IN THE COLONIES 





Rosen- Carmel 
hayn 


Garton 
Road 


Norma 


Brot- 

manville 
Alliance 


Wood- 
bine 


Total 


No. of factories in 
colony 


4 


3 





3 


3 


8 


21 


No. of factories 
active 


2 


1 





2 


1 


6 


12 


Nature of factories 


Clothing 
Bricks 


Clothing 




Clothing 


Clothing 


Clothing 

Hats 

Rubber 

Machine 

Apparatus 




No. employed 


41 


25 





53 


25 


236 


380 


No of dependent 
poor in colony. . . 
























Many of the settlers who devoted their energy to the cultivation of the 
soil are now independent farmers, and have no need to labor in the fac- 
tories. Those who are employed in the factories to-day are, in the main, 



42 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

not farmers at all. Some live in the colonies because their physical condi- 
tion requires it; others because the cost of living is lower there than it is 
in the city, and still others because they prefer rural to urban life. 

Certain of the factories, it will be noted, are not in use. In Rosenhayn, 
one of the factories has been closed for a number of years; another has 
reopened several times, but, after a few months' operation, closed again. 
Only a few months ago while it was active, the manufacturer one day de- 
cided to move his plant to Vineland, and so once more was the building 
shut. But two clothing factories are open now (1919), one employing 
thirty-five and the other only six people. The majority of the employees in 
the former plant are gentiles. Also active in Rosenhayn is a brickyard, 
established some time ago. After its due ups and downs, it is growing con- 
stantly. Of its about twenty-five employees a mere few are Jews. 

Carmel's industry suffered greatly when the factory owned by Mr. 
Henry Dix was suddenly about two years ago shut down. How valuable 
an element in the community it has been for the several years of its main- 
tenance may be seen from the circumstance that a splendid manager was 
in charge of the plant, and the employees were treated with great considera- 
tion. A large factory building, erected right in the heart of the settle- 
ment, has been idle for many years. Twenty-five people are now engaged 
in the making of housedresses in a factory operated by a Mr. Aaron. 

As for Norma, there are three factory buildings of which two are in 
use. One, manufacturing vests, employs eight people ; the other, making 
cloaks and suits, employs forty-five. 

Here, too, the situation was unstable for a long time, the larger estab- 
lishment opening and closing at frequent intervals. The two factories 
might continue in operation, if sufficient help could be secured and kept. 
This labor situation arises from the fact that work is more secure and 
wages are higher even in the small city, such as Vineland and Bridgeton, 
than they are in the settlements. Many of the colonists, therefore, prefer 
to travel each day to work in the neighboring urban centers. 

Garton Road and Alliance, being solely agricultural, have no factories. 
Brotmanville, however, has three factories but only one in operation, manu- 
facturing clothing and employing twenty-five people. 

In Woodbine, the situation is radically different ; it has been reiterated 
that Woodbine is industrial instead of agricultural. There are eight factory 
buildings, six of which are in operation. One is a clothing establishment, 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 43 

employing about 150 people; another, a hat factory in which fifty people 
are employed; a third, a tailor shop with a staff of twenty employees; a 
fourth, a machine shop employing ten ; the other two buildings are operated 
by a rubber concern, employing six. Negotiations are going on with re- 
gard to another building as a hat factory. The buildings are brick struc- 
tures, quite well equipped and in good condition. 

In addition to these industries, Woodbine has two painters and paper- 
hangers, two barber shops, three shoemakers, one blacksmith, and two 
garages. In Rosenhayn, there are two plumbers, two junk dealers, two 
shoemakers, a carpenter, a bakery, and two blacksmith shops. In Carmel, 
there is one blacksmith shop, and in two homes cigars are manufactured. 
Norma has a bakery, a shoemaker, a blacksmith shop, a junk dealer, a 
chauffeur and truck driver. Certain persons in each colony earn their live- 
lihood by trading in cattle. 

While a number of families in each settlement open their homes for 
summer boarding, two families in Rosenhayn, one in Garton Road, two in 
Norma, one in Brotmanville, and one in Woodbine conduct boarding- 
houses or hotels for the greater part of the year. 

While it is true that there are no rich Jews in the colonies, it is also 
true that there are no Jews who might be considered impecunious to the 
extent of requiring charity. Each family is economically independent; if, 
however, an occasion should arise when temporary help is needed to tide 
over a bad season, the neighbors are quite willing to assist those in need. 
The kind of poor that we see on the East side of New York City is unknown 
in the colonies. If there is a widow in the community unable to earn a 
livelihood, her neighbors organized in a Ladies' Aid Society come to her 
assistance, providing her with the immediate necessities, and helping her to 
find suitable employment. 



44 



JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



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THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 



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46 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

It will be seen that certain school buildings are not in use. The one- 
room building known as the South Rosenhayn School, located on the out- 
skirts of the village, was closed about two years ago, because it was decided, 
for efficiency, to convey the children by bus to the main school in Rosen- 
hayn. This school consists of two buildings; one of two rooms, and the 
other of four, built adjacent to each other. In front of the school is a 
playground, considered the largest in Deerfield Township, of which Rosen- 
hayn is a part. Besides its daily use, the playground is also used for ath- 
letic contests, and, once a year in the month of May, a Field Day is 
held, in which all the schools of the township participate in various recrea- 
tional and athletic sports. Of the 261 pupils, 95 are Jews. 

Carmel has two school buildings, both in use: one in the center of the 
village consisting of four rooms, with an enrollment of 123 scholars, 89 
of whom are Jews, and the other, an ungraded school-room situated outside 
the township limits, with an enrollment of 35, of whom 25 are Jews. It is 
because neighbors of this school consider themselves members of the Car- 
mel community, that it is in the survey. Small playgrounds surround both 
schools. 114 of the 158 pupils are Jews. 

In the Garton Road school, however, 24 of 25 children are Jewish, 
although, as seen in Table 3, there are 24 non-Jewish families. The fact 
is that their children are sent to other schools closer to their homes, which 
are not in the range of this survey. The ungraded school is, in the nature 
of things, inefficient. That it cannot be otherwise has been proved by every 
student of such schools 1 . No matter how remarkable the teacher, no matter 
how much effort and energy she exert, the pupils do not receive the intensive 
training they would get in a graded school. The situation in Garton Road 
has been bettered in part by the assignment of the seventh and eighth 
grade pupils to the Rosenhayn school. 

The one-room school-house in Norma serves for the younger pupils 
only, 91 % of whom are Jews. It is really a kind of kindergarten. On the 
edge of Norma in a little place known as Union Grove, which is regarded 
as a part of Norma, is another school with a fairly large playground before 
it. So few are the Jewish families in that neighborhood that, out of an 
enrollment of 62 in the two rooms of the school, only 15 are Jews. 

The large, well-built school of Norma contains four rooms, three of 
which are functioning as classrooms. The fourth room, formerly used for 
manual training, is now idle. Around the school is an attractive play- 
ground. 62 of the 70 children are Jewish. Of the total enrollment of the 
three schools, 175, 116 are Jews. 



'The Status of Rural Education in the U. S., A. C. Monahan. This Bulletin, pub- 
lished by the U. S. Bureau of Education, presents a very good summary of rural 
school conditions in this country. 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 47 

When, three years ago, no teacher could be obtained for the Brotman- 
ville ungraded school, it was decided to close the building and send the 
children to the Alliance school. It has not been reopened since, nor, in view 
of the rapidly decreasing population of Brotmanville, is it likely that it 
ever be. Six Points has too few people to have a school of its own. 
The children of the elementary grades are taken by bus to the Alliance 
School, while those in secondary school are conveyed to the railroad station 
at Norma, whence they are taken to the Bridgeton High School. In the 
Alliance School, 30 of the 38 pupils are Jews. 

Until the recent completion of the new consolidated school, Wood- 
bine had four school buildings, which, superseded, are now closed. All 
the pupils who live about two miles or more from the school are conveyed 
by bus. The building has ten rooms, including two well-equipped kinder- 
garten classes. It is the only school in all the colonies that is entirely 
graded and conducted according to the latest methods. 85% of the 415 
children enrolled in March 1920, were Jewish. Alongside of the consoli- 
dated school is a fine high school building of four rooms, with an enrollment 
of 59 of whom 94% are Jewish. To the rear of the two buildings is a 
large playground bordered by a well-kept hedge. When the writer visited 
the school a few weeks ago, he found school and playgrounds worthy of 
communal pride. 

The population of the other Jewish settlements is not large enough to 
warrant a high school of their own. To the Bridgeton High School, situ- 
ated about thirteen miles from their farthest limit, go their boys and girls. 
Free railroad transportation is accorded, while those who live more than 
two miles from the station are conveyed by bus to and from the train. 
Since Carmel is not located near any railroad station, and the trolley line 
is quite a distance from the village, the bus takes the students to the High 
School directly. 

The Woodbine schools are illuminated by electricity, while those in the 
other colonies have no lights of any kind. The Woodbine and the Rosen- 
hayn schools have steam heat ; the larger school house of Norma is equipped 
with "pipeless heaters" ; while the rest of the schools of the colonies have 
large stoves in each room. The schools of all the colonies have their 
toilets outdoors ; and, while the Woodbine schools have an indoor water 
supply, those of the other colonies have to resort to the outdoor pump, 
and even that is not always working. The day still seems remote when all 
the schools in the Jewish settlements will have indoor toilets as well as 
indoor water systems. Yet, who would doubt that these are improvements 
most essential to the health and well-being of the children? 

In Rosenhayn, a Jewish settlement, only 36% of the pupils are Jews. 
Of the other 64%, the great majority are Italians. Yet the statistic of the 



48 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

enrollment in all the other colonies indicates that the majority are still 
Jews, particularly in Garton Road and in Woodbine. Of 25 children in 
the Garton Road school, only one is gentile, and of the 474 pupils in 
both schools at Woodbine, about 90% are Jewish. The writer keenly 
hopes that, if the colonies are to bear the vital witness which with regard 
to the Jewish Question it is their unique value that they should bear, — that, 
then, they should remain, numerically and spiritually, economically and so- 
cially, chiefly Jewish. 

Many of the Jewish boys and girls who graduate from the grammar 
school go to high school. The number would be still greater, if the methods 
of elementary instruction were better calculated to arouse the desire for 
higher learning. Many, too, leave school before they reach the eighth 
grade. 

The courses the boys and girls pursue in Bridgeton High School are 
chiefly commercial, while most of those that attend the Woodbine High 
School take the classical courses. In fact, there are no commercial courses 
as such offered in this School, because of the very little demand for them. 
Many of the high school graduates of Woodbine matriculate either in a' Uni- 
versity or a normal school. With the graduates from the other colonies, it 
is otherwise. The greatest majority of them become stenographers, typists, 
or clerks in business establishments, while only about one or two from each 
colony enter a higher institution of learning. 

None of the schools in the colonies has special classes for backward 
pupils, although there are a sufficient number in some of the schools to 
constitute a class. These children retard the progress of the brighter pupils, 
who consequently receive far less instruction than they would if the back- 
ward ones were separated and given special training. The expense thai 
this would entail would be more than offset by the more rapid progress of 
the brighter pupils. 

Once a week, usually about a half hour on Friday afternoon, a little 
instruction is given in agriculture, and that only in the seventh and eighth 
grades. The fact that the children live in rural communities, and come 
in close contact with the soil is all the more reason why a love for farm 
life should and could be implanted in them at an early age. The teacher 
has the most wonderful opportunity to combine the scientific knowledge 
of agriculture with its practical application on the farm. The instruction 
should be carried right through the school by competent teachers, preferably 
by those who have had actual farm experience. If the boys and girls of 
the colonies will be taught in school in a systematic way, the benefits of out- 
door life and the superiority of agriculture over other occupations, they 
may learn to appreciate farming and be willing to pursue it as a life voca- 
tion. 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 49 

In Woodbine, a little time is devoted in school to elementary manual 
training and in Carmel still less instruction is given in that subject, while 
in the schools of the other colonies no such training is given to the pupils 
at all. About five years ago, a course was given in Norma. A room was 
fitted up for that purpose with quite satisfactory equipment. But on the 
departure of the instructor, the course was abandoned, and not since re- 
sumed. 

Domestic Science met with a similar fate in Norma. A beautiful cot- 
tage was built through the munificence of Mr. Maurice Fels of Philadelphia 
for the purpose of giving this kind of training. The facilities were good 
and the work was carried on for a few years to the great delight and 
benefit of the pupils. It is of far reaching importance that courses in 
manual training for boys and domestic science for girls be reinstituted in 
Norma and extended to the other colonies. The pupils of the Woodbine 
school are obtaining an elementary course in domestic science. But the 
work needs to be made more thorough and valuable. 

A word may now be said about other educational influences operative 
in the colonies. The educational activities of the Jewish Chautauqua So- 
ciety will be referred to in relation to the religious life of the colonies. 
With the exception of Woodbine, the schools do not maintain libraries of 
any great account, but there is a community library in each colony. In 
Woodbine the school library is open to the community at large. In Norma 
the library books are kept in the Fels cottage, mentioned above. Some 
of the books belong to Mr. Fels and others are received at frequent intervals 
from the New Jersey Public Library Commission at Trenton. The li- 
braries of Rosenhayn, Carmel, Garton Road, and Alliance are in charge 
of Mr. Louis Mounier, whose name we are not unacquainted with. There 
are a number of volumes in Yiddish, for the parents who are unable to 
read in the English language. The library, open one evening during the 
week, is not at all used as much as it should be. Then, most of the farmers 
subscribe to a daily newspaper, printed in the Yiddish language. Some 
receive also English newspapers and farm journals, — "The Jewish Farmer", 
for instance. 



50 



JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 



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THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 51 

To begin with, it should be stated that the communities were consti- 
tuted of orthodox Jews. Not that the pioneers were complete observers 
of the minutiae of the ritual, but they were of the orthodox (East Euro- 
pean) side of Jewry as distinguished from the German occidentalized side 
known as Reform Judaism. Some of the older generation and certainly 
many of the second generation are, even, quite indifferent to the rites 
and doctrines of traditional Judaism. But no colony is without a synagogue. 
Three of the communities have each two places of worship, built in two 
instances for the convenience of even the outlying settlers and, in the 
third, to satisfy the ritual differences of the worshipers. 

The synagogues are open on the Sabbath and on holidays. Most of 
the time the attendance is not large, but on the Holy Days, known as Rosh 
Hashanah or New Year, and Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, most 
of the Jews do attend. The attendance on Sabbaths and holidays would 
be much greater, if the services were managed more esthetically and in- 
spiringly. The faults are not peculiar to the colonies alone, but reflect 
rather the state of things in most orthodox synagogues. 

The young people come seldom to the synagogue ; when they do, it is 
not of their own free will, but rather, either in obedience to a strict command 
on the part of a pious parent, or because the young man has to recite the 
mourner's benediction for the loss of father or mother. Surely many of 
the youths would go spontaneously if they could look forward to an 
inspiring sermon, based on the Sabbath Portion of the Torah, or dealing 
with any ethical, moral, or religious values. The Synagogue has three prin- 
cipal functions : spiritual, educational, and social, none of which is proper- 
ly fulfilled at the present time. The colonists have a splendid opportunity 
to perform these duties in the genuine spirit of Judaism. 

There are no ordained Rabbis in the colonies. The functions of the 
Rabbi are performed by a Shochet, whose profession is to slaughter fowl 
and animals of the bovine genus according to the orthodox ritual. He is 
usually a man well versed in Talmudic Law, and in the absence of a full- 
fledged Rabbi, he is consulted on all ritualistic questions. He also con- 
ducts religious services, reads aloud the Torah from the parchment scroll 
on the Sabbath and holidays, officiates at marriage ceremonies, and usually 
performs the rite of circumcision. 

Two kinds of religious instruction are available to the young people 
in these communities : that of the Melamed, or Hebrew instructor, and 
that of the Jewish Chautauqua Society. 

The Melamed, whose income is so small that very often he has to 
perform other functions to earn a simple livelihood, aims to teach the 
child to read the prayer book in Hebrew, and to read and write Yiddish. 

The religious instruction of the Chautauqua is imparted in accord 
with the latest pedagogical methods. The lessons are taught in the English 



52 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

language, the training is more permanent, and the teaching extends to the 
adults and parents. The great majority of the children are enrolled in 
the classes and the percentage of attendance is very high. The younger 
ones are taught the moral and religious principles found in the Bible. The 
true significance of the Sabbath and holidays is explained and their observ- 
ance made desirable. The importance of character-building permeates the 
entire curriculum. Courses in Post-Biblical History, Jewish literature and 
Jewish problems are given for the older boys and girls and those parents 
who would know. Although the trustees of the organization are Reform 
Jews, they are broad-minded men and women who can tolerate and even 
value the habits and customs of the orthodox, so long as they lead to 
right living. The only purpose they lay down for the resident director is 
to teach Judaism. 

Woodbine, alone of the colonies, is outside the scope of this work, 
because it is so far from the other settlements. To maintain a separate 
resident director in Woodbine would be ideal, but perhaps beyond the 
financial means of the organization. We have noted that, prior to the 
closing of the Agricultural School of Woodbine, the Baron de Hirsch Fund 
maintained a Rabbi whose functions were in some respects similar to those 
of the director of the other colonies. Certainly, it ought not to be forgotten 
that Woodbine still has a population of about thirteen hundred Jewish 
souls who require authoritative guidance and religious instruction. They 
have a non-ordained Rabbi, but his methods of teaching and personality 
appeal more to the older men and women than to the younger boys and 
girls. Since it is these that are falling away from Judaism, their minds 
and hearts must, particularly, be taken into account by any vital program. 

In a broad sense, all the phenomena surveyed so far in this chapter are 
phenomena of social life. The next table analyzing the "social life of the 
colonies", understood in the narrow sense, takes account of the community 
halls, clubs, playgrounds, and the social intercourse between the city and 
country. 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 



53 



TABLE 11 



SOCIAL LIFE OF THE COLONIES 





Rosen- 
hayn 


Carmel 


Garton 
Road 


Norma 


Brot- 

manville 
Alliance 


Wood- 
bine 


Total 


Is there a Com- 
munity Hall? 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 


Yes 




No. of organizations 
in colony 


8 


5 


2 


7 


2 


10 


34 


No. of organizations 
which meet in 
Community Hall. 


4 


3 


2 


3 


1 


6 


19 


No. of organizations 
which meet out- 
side of Commu- 
nity Hall 


4 


2 




4 


1 


4 


15 


Is there a Public 
Playground? 


School 
Play- 
ground 
Used 


School 
Play- 
ground 
Used 


School 
Play- 
ground 
Used 


School 
Play- 
ground 
Used 


School 
Play- 
ground 
Used 


Yes 





Both Rosenhayn and Carmel have a hall built, it will be recalled from 
Chapter 2, by the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society for the 
social and educational welfare of these communities. Franklin Hall, in Ro- 
senhayn, is situated in the center of the village, opposite the post-office and 
at a stone's throw from the school building. It contains a dance hall, a 
library, a room used for Hebrew instruction, and a rest room. A number 
of clubs meet in the building. The Hall is open almost every afternoon and 
evening: in the afternoon, for Hebrew and religious instruction, and, in 
the evening, for club meetings, community assemblies, weddings, parties, 

and dancing. 

The Boy Scouts meet on Saturday evening to discuss activities, and 
to receive training in community service. The Civic Guards, a club of young 
men and women, organized for the purpose of looking after the welfare 
of the hall and the community, meet on Wednesday evenings. On Monday 
evening, the "Seeds of Zion", a group of small boys and girls that attend 



54 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

the religious classes of the Jewish Chautauqua Society meet, principally, 
for companionship. Incidentally, stories of Jewish life are read to the 
members by the leader of the club. Essays on Jewish and general topics 
are written by some of the members, and civic talks are given at almost 
. every meeting. On some of the other evenings of the week, the young 
folks get together for the purpose of dancing. The Civic Guards responsible 
for the conduct of these affairs have orders to keep out any one who has 
shown himself undesirable before. In the same hall meets monthly the 
rather new "Tomato Growers' Association" for the purpose of co-operating 
in the sale of the tomato crop. This organization may in time develop into 
a wider association having for its main object the cooperation in the sale of 
all farm products. 

Besides these, there are some other organizations which do not hold 
their meetings in the Hall. The members of the Knights of Pythias have 
their own clubroom. An Independent Lodge, composed of many of the 
parents of Rosenhayn and Garton Road, meets on the upper floor of a 
private house and the women of the community, organized as a "Ladies' 
Aid Society", hold their meetings in a private home. If all the organiza- 
tions of Rosenhayn would participate in the maintenance of the Hall, it 
could be kept up at a high standard of efficiency, and become a real com- 
munity center, where all societies would meet for individual as well as 
mutual benefit. The same holds true of the other colonies. 

Columbia Hall, in Carmel, resembles Franklin Hall in scope, harboring 
almost all the same kinds of activity. The Home Rule Social Club and The 
Young Stars of Judah here, are of the same sort as the Civic Guards and 
The Seeds of Zion there. There are a lodge, a Ladies' Aid Society, and 
a farmers' association organized and working like their analogues in Rosen- 
hayn. No other community halls did the Jewish A. and I. Aid Society 
put up in the colonies. The people of Garton Road, with the assistance of 
a few outside sympathizers, built their own hall, known as Washington 
Hall. Because a number of the young men and women of this colony 
have gone to the city, the Hall has not been maintained at a high degree 
of efficiency. If the young people who remain would develop a genuine 
community feeling, it would be a comparatively simple matter to take care 
of the Hall, in such a way that, in a short time, it would be a pride to 
the people of their own as well as of surrounding communities. 

Garton Road farmers belong to a "Tomato Growers' Association", and 
to a society organized under the Federal Farm Loan Act. Both are organ- 
izations aiming to improve the economic conditions of their constituents, 
which, when perfected, will undoubtedly react favorably upon the social 
welfare of the whole community. A social and literary society of the 
young men and women, known as the "Young Maccabees of Garton Road", 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 55 

has existed for a number of years. The young children have recently or- 
ganized a little club called "The Young Associates", which meets on Thurs- 
day afternoons, in connection with the religious and educational activities 
of the Jewish Chautauqua Society. 

When the need for a community gathering place was greatly felt in 
Norma, some of the young men, constituting the "Norma Athletic Asso- 
ciation," undertook to build a hall. A building much larger than those of 
Rosenhayn and Carmel was erected. The members of the Association are 
still striving to discharge the debt incurred in the building. 

There is, besides, the Fels cottage, now devoted principally to the 
religious and civic education of the young. It is used also as a library 
and a meeting room for various organizations. The Boy Scouts of Norma 
meet there on Saturday evenings ; the "Young Children of Israel", a club 
that has grown out of the religious classes conducted by the Jewish Chau- 
tauqua Society, meets on Wednesday afternoon to study community civics; 
the "Mary Antin Circle," a social and literary society composed of young 
men and women interested in Jewish and civic problems, meets on alternate 
Wednesday evenings, and the "Pittsgrove Township Tomato Growers' Asso- 
ciation" meets on alternate Thursday evenings to discuss general agricultural 
questions, besides for the purpose of cooperating in the marketing of 
tomatoes. 

Woodbine became incorporated as a borough in Cape May County in 
April, 1903, and accordingly, a mayor and council were chosen to look 
after its administration, and a board of education to attend to its educa- 
tional welfare. A borough hall was erected for a meeting place of the 
Council Chamber and Board of Education. To-day, the hall is used also 
for all public assemblies and meetings of a benevolent character. The 
lower floor of the building contains a fire department. Some of the young 
men of Woodbine act as volunteers in that department, and are doing ex- 
cellent service for the safety of the community. There are two other halls 
in Woodbine ; one known as Lyric Hall, which offers motion pictures to 
the public, and the other known as Liberty Hall, where many concerts 
and entertainments are held. 

Among the organizations that are found in Woodbine to-day are the 
following: a branch of the Federation of Jewish Farmers, a credit union 
under the Federal Farm Loan Act, Building and Loan Association ; 
branches of the Independent Order of Brith Abraham, the Maccabeans, and 
the Arbeiter Ring ; a Zionist organization, a Parents-teachers' Association, a 
Ladies' Aid Society, a sewing circle, a boy scout troop, and a rifle club. 
The organizations vary a good deal in their aims and purposes ; some are 
economic, some are educa.ional, others are charitable, and still others are 
social in their nature. 



56 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

The school playgrounds are open not only to the school children, but 
also to all athletic clubs for their games and contests. They are open to 
use without cost; the only limitation imposed upon the clubs is to main- 
tain peace and order. Baseball is the leading outdoor and basket ball the 
chief indoor sport in the colonies. Other popular forms of recreation are 
dancing, parties, and picnics. 

Several noteworthy meetings are held in the colonies, some of a recrea- 
tional and others of an educational nature, but all of which aim to develop 
social intercourse. In the first place, an outdoor athletic contest is held 
during the first part of May, on the large playground facing the Rosen- 
hayn School. The pupils of all the schools of Deerfield Township, which 
includes the settlements of Carmel, Garton Road, and Rosenhayn, together 
with their teachers, County Superintendent of Schools, Boards of Educa- 
tion, parents and friends meet in a way that cannot but prove beneficial 
to all concerned. During the same month, the Woodbine School participates 
in the annual County athletic meet which is held at Cape May Court House. 

Entertainments and concerts are given in the colonies on the occasion 
of Jewish holidays by the boys and girls who attend the religious schools 
of the Jewish Chautauqua Society, and on national holidays, by the Boy 
Scout Troops. The most enthusiastic meeting of the year is the annual 
inter-colonial meeting, held in Norma the latter part of May, under the 
auspices of the afore-mentioned Society. More will be said of the im- 
portance of this meeting in the following chapter. 

Our account would, forsooth, not be complete without mention of that 
popular, if undesirable, form of recreation — the informal meeting at the 
post-office. Boys there are and even adults who like to hang around the 
place with no other object in view than to waste their time in gossip and 
idle talk. They belong to that careless, indifferent, and ambitionless group 
that have no desire for better things, and whom no amount of persuasion 
will influence to abandon this form of amusement. Certainly the moral, 
religious, and civic instruction given by the director of the Jewish Chau- 
tauqua Society, together with the various literary and social clubs under 
his supervision, has been influential in a large measure in checking the 
evil consequences that frequently result from such pastimes. But pres- 
ent conditions are still far from ideal. The community halls must be made 
more inviting, and the clubs and organizations more interesting, in order to 
attract the element that still finds amusement in devious paths. 

The community centers are the best agencies for bridging the gap that 
exists in many cases between the parents and the children. Too often 
we find a lack of understanding between the young and the old elements 
of the population, which sometimes leads to ill-feeling and intolerance. 
Nothing could bring the two elements together more than public meetings 



THE STATUS OF THE COLONIES IN 1919 57 

and entertainments, held in the various halls of the colonies. These oc- 
casions provide perfect opportunity for better mutual understanding be- 
tween the parents and their children ; to impress the former with the value 
of modern ideas and ideals and the importance of adaptation and adjust- 
ment to modern conditions of life; and to inculcate in the minds and hearts 
of the latter an appreciation of the old traditions, habits and customs, to 
the end that a more harmonious relationship may be consummated between 
the old and the new generation. 

Another purpose that these community centers serve is to produce a 
friendlier feeling between the Jew and non-Jew. While among the gentile 
neighbors, of native, Italian, and other stock, no open hostility appears, 
there still are forces of prejudice which knowledge and enlightenment lead- 
ing to a better understanding of their mutual habits and customs might 
subdue. 

Not only must there be closer relationship among the inhabitants of the 
colonies, but there must also be wider social intercourse between the people 
of the country with those of the city. This will bring about a better mutual 
understanding and sympathy between them that will be productive of a 
great deal of good for both groups. 

Hitherto, the Jewish settlements suffered from economic want. When 
people work hard and are unable to make ends meet, it is of little com- 
fort to them to speak of social betterment of the community. The social 
instinct may be latent, it may become atrophied through lack of stimula- 
tion, but it exists in every individual. Economic independence leads to social 
activity. When a person's fundamental desire for food, clothing, and shelter 
is satisfied, his mind is then regardful of social intercourse. 

Now that economic conditions have improved, and every farmer is 
self-sustaining, it may be expected that the dormant social instinct will 
awaken from its lethargic state, and arouse the people to its full sense of 
a community spirit, of voluntary association, organization, and cooperation. 
The signs of such an awakening are beginning to be visible. It is the duty 
of every individual pervaded with that spirit to stimulate those who are 
more inert in their tendencies. 



CHAPTER 4 
POTENTIALITIES 

It is difficult to expect men and women to work on a farm at low 
wages, to put up with primitive conditions, with little if any social inter- 
course, with comparatively little opportunity for intellectual development, 
at a time when superior alternatives are offered to them in the city. No 
matter what the trade or industry, however skilled or unskilled, wages are 
higher. If expenses, too, are higher in the city,— people are willing to 
spend more, if they earn more. 

Modern improvements are found in a large number of urban homes 
and compulsory legislation is making this condition almost universal in the 
city. Besides, the social and intellectual life there are far more attractive 
than they are in the country. These factors play a very important part in 
the consideration of the question : "What accounts for the large exodus from 
the country to the city?" Inducements on the ground of patriotism to pro- 
vide food for the country at large, allurements of the sanative open air of 
the country, attractions of communion with the beauties of nature, incentives 
of lower expenditure are not strong enough to counteract the physical dis- 
comforts and social and educational shortcomings of country life. 

To stem the outgoing tide from the country to the city of some of the 
best elements other stimuli are necessary : economic, social, and educational. 
It is startling, when one studies the situation, to watch the alarming pro- 
portions this rural exodus is assuming. According to the federal census 
figures for 1880, 70.5% of the population of the United States dwelt in the 
country, while in 1910 only 53.7% ; and although at this moment the re- 
port of the federal census for 1920 is still unpublished, 1 it may safely be 
assumed that the percentage of rural dwellers will be still less than it was 
ten years ago. And as for the proportion between Jewish country and 
city dwellers, the divergence is still more marked. 

No amount of effort should be spared, no expenditure of money should 
be stinted, greater attention than hitherto should be devoted to the needs of 
the farmers; a survey should be made of every rural district to discover 
what appropriate stimuli, what improvement in conditions in the particular 
locality will increase the attractiveness of agricultural life for the farmers 



Advanced figures published in the press tend to indicate that the percentage of rural 
dwellers in 1920 would range somewhere between 49 and 50 per cent. 

58 



POTENTIALITIES 59 

of today. And, too, ample effort ought to be exerted to influence even 
people accustomed to a sedentary life to go and be tillers of the soil. 

The problem of the Jewish farmer is but a part of the larger problem 
embracing farming in general throughout the country. But the Jews, owing 
to the fact that they were debarred from owning and cultivating land for 
many centuries, have developed the sedentary habit of life to a larger degree 
than perhaps any other group on the face of the globe. That it is merely an 
acquired characteristic and not inherent can be verified by historic record 
that the Jewish people were devoted to agricultural pursuits at the time 
they lived in Palestine. 1 But when they were expelled from their native 
country and driven out on a long and weary exile, they ceased from agri- 
culture, because, in the first place, being unwelcome strangers in the lands 
of their adoption, their sojourn was temporary and uncertain, and because, 
in the second place, the laws of many countries that harbored Jews pro- 
hibited them from owning land. 2 This long exclusion from participation in 
the cultivation of the soil at last weaned them from their one-time love of 
agriculture. 

Although a minute study of Jewish history will discover Jewish farm- 
ers in different lands at various times, even while the laws prohibited their 
purchasing land and farming it, and although seven Jewish colonies were 
established in 1806 in Southern Russia and sporadic colonization continued 
there until the infamous May Laws of 1882, yet it is largely true that Jewish 
farming as an organized Jewish movement dates back to a little over one 
generation. 

Today, when we see thousands of non-Jewish farmers deserting the 
farms upon which they were born and raised to go to the city, it is not to be 
wondered at that many of the Jews who decided to pursue agriculture about 
a generation ago, under artificial stimuli, abandon their farms. 

Under favorable conditions and with the desired stimuli, the Jews might 
have flourished in agriculture as they did in other branches of industry and 
commerce. And despite the failures of the past, when the Jew of today 
receives the proper encouragement and guidance, he promises as well to 
succeed at farming. 3 

Agriculture must be regarded as a profession, not as a make-shift for 
those who have failed in every other pursuit. Scientific farming is the 
slogan of today, and unless the Jewish farmer can be made to understand 
the importance of it, his chances for success are not very bright. 

Here the Jewish A. and I. Aid Society and kindred organizations have 



1 History of the Jewish Nation, Rev. Alfred Edersheim, p. 259, et seq. 

2 History of the Jews, H. Graetz, Vol. Ill, 107-8, 242, 592; Vol. IV, 260, 566-7, 688. 

3 Reports of the Agricultural School of Woodbine and the National Farm School. 



60 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

a solid base for their operation, and on it they must concentrate their 
energies. It is a reasonable certainty that when young men are sent to 
properly located agricultural schools, and given training in the science of 
agriculture, and then, upon graduation, are assisted in the finding of satis- 
factory farms, they will not abandon their holdings as readily as those who 
do not secure such training and assistance. 1 Propaganda should be made 
among the Jewish youths in the ghettoes as well as among those who dwell 
in the country, to discourage them from entering those trades and pro- 
fessions that are already overcrowded, and no longer hold out the induce- 
ments of former times, and to encourage them to enter the field of scientific 
agriculture. 

In the past, when farming was unprofitable, it would have been like a 
voice crying in the wilderness, but to-day, when Jewish farmers in general 
are doing quite well, and some of them are even improving their homes and 
saving money besides, an appeal to the Jewish youth to become scientific 
farmers might not fall on deaf ears. If the appeal will not be heeded by 
the young of the city, it may reach the younger Jews on the farm who, 
because they see the apparent drudgery of farm life and no very bright 
prospects, have little if any inclination to remain on the farms. Regard for 
agriculture as a profession and elimination of the wide prejudice that farm- 
ing is inferior to other pursuits, stimulation of progressive ideals among 
farmers, creation of a community spirit among them, initiation of the 
social and educational forces which the Jew welcomes — this program will go 
a great way toward encouraging the children of the Jewish farmers and 
others as well, to pursue agriculture as a life-vocation. 

Various proposals have already been made by various individuals and 
agencies with a view to improve the rural conditions in general. No doubt 
they all spring from a spirit of sincerity and a willingness to be of service. 
Among them, it may not be out of place to mention a resolution adopted 
by the National Country Life Association at its first conference held at 
Baltimore, January 6th and 7th, 1919. The resolution called for a com- 
mittee to be appointed by the Association to draft a tentative program of 
the most immediate needs in the line of rural reform in America, and to 
call a conference with the representatives of the leading agencies that are 
interested in rural social work on a national scale, "for the purpose of co- 
ordinating the reconstruction program of these various agencies in order 
that duplication and waste effort may be prevented." 

The conference met and made a good beginning, formulating the more 
important social needs of rural communities, and the principles and methods 
of organization suited for meeting them. Particular stress was laid upon 
the fact that, for the purpose of carrying on effective rural social work, 



'Reports of Woodbine Agricultural School and National Farm School. 



POTENTIALITIES 61 

the local community should be considered the functional unit instead of the 
district or county, which may be a unit for executive or administrative 
purposes. 

In the annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 
for March, 1919, Prof. Simon N. Patten lays down some farm maxims 
which he considers essential in the development of a program of rural social 
reconstruction. A few of those maxims are: 

"The increase of production comes not from an enlarged acreage but 
from a better use of good land. 

"Gross production is limited when the price of land rises above one 
hundred dollars an acre. 

"The farming unit should not be less than that needed to employ two 
men at full time. 

"The dearer stock and tools are in the end the cheaper. 

"Farm prices should not be a gamble but a certainty. Stable prices 
are better than alternating high and low prices. 

"Experiments of national import shall be made in the preservation of 
food products from season, and when successful shall be operated on a 
sufficient scale to stabilize food prices. 

"Elevators, stock yards, and other means of marketing products shall 
be made common property, subject only to such fees as are needed for their 
maintenance. 

"Farm tools and improvements shall be exempted from taxation, except 
for schools and roads. Nor shall dairy farming be taxed for more than 
60% of their value." 

Although Prof. Patten characterizes the above statements as maxims, 
the writer has not inserted them as axiomatic, but rather to stimulate thought 
on the part of Jews and non-Jews who have the progress of the farming 
communities at heart. It seems to him, however, that the actualization of 
these ideas calls for greater coordination of effort among the Jews at large, 
and for a full realization of the conditions. 

To begin with, there is a lack of initiative on the part of many of the 
people in the colonies. Very seldom do they become interested of them- 
selves in a forward-looking movement. Most of them are indifferent 
toward new and loftier ideas. They seem to fall into a groove from which 
they find it difficult to rise. The people in the colonies still have to learn 
how to work together. The organizations that exist for one purpose or 
another should federate for the purpose of planning and working out some 
improvements for the community. They must assimilate the true and genuine 
spirit of cooperation. 

To be sure, most of them are good neighbors. Yet they do not interest 
themselves sufficiently in the essential requirements of the community. The 



62 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

side roads are deteriorating for lack of repair; trees on each side of the 
main streets of the colonies are conspicuous by their absence; houses are 
shabby looking for want of a coat of paint; the community buildings are not 
properly taken care of; and, with the exception of Woodbine, no lights of 
any kind illuminate the roads and the streets at night, giving the colonies 
a dreary aspect. Little do they know how many backward pupils there 
are in the community, how many children do not go to school, what progress 
the schools are making as compared with other schools, and yet it must be 
clear to every one who thinks about the matter that hope for progress in 
the Jewish settlements lies in the social development of each community as 
a vital phase of the agricultural life. People who lived in the colonies some 
twenty years ago claim, upon visiting them, that little if any improvement 
has been made during the interval. 

The assertion is true in so far as the community idea, public spirit, and 
cooperation are concerned. But it is unfounded to an extent from other 
points of view. Modern improvements, such as sanitary plumbing, steam 
heat, gas and electric lights have found their way into a few homes. Other 
families follow suit as soon as economic conditions allow. Telephones and 
automobiles, as the survey in the preceding chapter has shown, are in- 
creasingly, radically serving to consummate communal adjacency, no matter 
how far out the farm. 

The assertion is unfounded also from the standpoint of education. 
There, too, progress has been made. Where twenty years ago and even 
more recently it was the unusually bright and ambitious boy and girl that 
would attend High School, to-day the majority of the grammar school grad- 
uates from the colonies enroll in the commercial, general, or classical courses 
of the Bridgeton or Woodbine High Schools, and a few of them, upon 
graduation, continue their education in higher institutions of learning. 

Furthermore, some twenty years ago, the only Jewish education avail- 
able was the old-fashioned Cheder kind, disallowed by modern pedagogy. 
For the school was usually conducted by an old man, learned, but unversed 
in or disregardful of the psychology of youth. Nor did he heed Rabbi 
Akiba's principle that "the teacher should strive to make the lesson agree- 
able by clear reason." The pupils, unsympathetic, were hardly attentive and 
often delighted in tormenting him. The course of study consisted of learn- 
ing to read the Hebrew prayer book in a mechanical way, without an 
understanding of the meaning of the words, and certainly without appreciat- 
ing the spirit of the prayers. For the method of learning was similar to 
that among other oriental people. The brighter ones would learn to trans- 
late a few chapters of the Pentateuch without having the least conception 
of the ethical and moral significance of the Holy Book. And when the 
boy would reach the age of thirteen, his Jewish education would cease; the 



POTENTIALITIES 63 

girl's ended at an even earlier age, for education was considered less needful 
for her. Withal they were happy to abandon their Jewish education at the 
earliest opportunity. 

Judaism appeared to them merely ceremonies and strange customs. 
They were not shown that these are only means and symbols; that their 
focal meaning is Micah's truth: "It hath been told thee, O man, what is 
good, and what the Lord doth require of thee: only to do justly, to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." 

The old Cheder, somewhat improved, is still found. Beside it, in all 
the colonies except Woodbine, function the modern classes of the Jewish 
Chautauqua Society, instituted ten years ago. These classes filled a great 
need, for the building of character as the source of true virtue and true 
piety was their principal goal, and to it they have remained faithful. 

The teacher and director employed by the Society to carry out its 
purposes lives in Rosenhayn, which is the center of the settlements not in- 
cluding Woodbine. Like the itinerant town master of early eighteenth 
century Massachusetts, he teaches in each colony on a particular day. Be- 
cause the population of Brotmanville and Alliance was rapidly diminishing, 
the Trustees of the Society about two years ago closed their schools there, 
the pupils to go to the nearest community. 

The Society also conducts an annual intercolonial meeting in Norma 
on a Sunday in the latter part of May, when the Jewish farmers, indeed 
the entire communities, are invited to a display of the religious and educa- 
tional progress of their children and to listen to earnest messages from the 
President, Chancellor, and Vice-Chancellor. Nine such annual meetings 
have been held, each with more eclat than the preceding. In each case the 
hall was filled, in spite of the fact that the meetings were on Sunday after- 
noons at the busiest season of the year. 1 

Certainly even this brief account of the work of the Society and allusion 
to the devotion of child, young man and woman, and parent establishes 
colonial progress in Jewish education as a fact — a fact which the writer 
believes admirable. 

While it is true that the environment of these colonies, as of any 
area in the Occident, is not so conducive to the preservation of all the 
Jewish customs and traditions as it is in Palestine or in the orient any- 
where, yet our South Jersey farmers may far more easily than the city 
dwellers observe the Sabbath as a day of stoppage from physical labor and 
devotion to spiritual stimulation. The beautiful Jewish holidays, too, may 
there be more genuinely celebrated and lived than is feasible in the cities. 

The importance of inculcating in the minds of the colonists the true 



*In June, 1920, the Jewish Chautauqua Society discontinued its educational and re- 
ligious program in the colonies. 



64 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

meaning and conception of Americanism has been realized by the socially- 
minded citizen, Mr. Maurice Fels, who inaugurated in each colony, about 
four years ago, classes for instruction in community civics. That this work 
is highly beneficial and noteworthy, no one who has the barest acquaintance 
with it will doubt. It is already producing satisfactory results. These noble 
efforts on the part of one individual should pave the way for other indi- 
viduals or civic organizations, whether of a private or public nature, to co- 
operate in the extension of the work. Not only are the immediate local 
needs brought to the attention of the people to instill in them civic pride, to 
urge them to take the initiative in beautifying the community in which they 
live, and to make them realize that cleanliness is next to godliness, but cur- 
rent events, too, the national and international problems of the day, are 
discussed from a non-partisan point of view. 

In connection with this work in community civics, Boy Scout troops 
have been organized in two of the Jewish colonies, Rosenhayn and Norma, 
which promise to be of great benefit to the individual members as well as 
to reflect credit upon the community. As the purpose of the troops is the 
same as that of the Boy Scout troops with which most readers are 
acquainted, it is not necessary to give any detailed account of their ac- 
tivities. 

There are a number of other clubs which serve to infuse a broad social 
spirit into the communities. Although some of them have already been re- 
ferred to in the preceding chapter, it may not be out of place to add a word 
or two about them here. The Civic Guards is a club that was organized in 
Rosenhayn a few years ago by some of the larger boys and girls. The 
name suggests the purpose. The members have charge of the community 
hall ; and they in conjunction with the Scouts are supposed to be on duty 
when a fire breaks out in the vicinity; and in time of disorder and confusion, 
they must restore peace and order. 

In Carmel, the Home Rule Social Club and in Norma the Athletic Asso- 
ciation performs functions similar to those of the Civic Guards, while the 
Mary Antin Circle of Norma is dedicated to literary as well as to social 
activities. These clubs are composed chiefly of the young men and women 
of the age of fourteen and upward. The younger children have their own 
social and literary organization. The parents, too, have various organiza- 
tions : religious, social, and economic. Many of them are members of the 
synagogues ; some belong to the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order 
Brith Abraham or to local lodges ; others join loan associations, while some 
of the farmers become members of agricultural organizations, which aim to 
promote the interests and welfare of the individual farmer, and indirectly 
the community at large. The women have their Ladies' Aid Societies with 
charity as their chief object. 



POTENTIALITIES 65 

The efficiency of most of these organizations suffers chiefly from the 
lack of a very active membership. For, each year a number of the active 
participants leave for the city, and it is somewhat difficult for the newly 
initiated to enter at once into the spirit of the older members. What one 
hears constantly is the deplorable fact that the colonies are becoming 
depopulated, that the best elements are migrating to the cities, and as some 
put it, "there is hardly any one left here." Some of the inhabitants them- 
selves predict a sad and gloomy future for the colonies as far as Jewish 
farming is concerned. A goodly number of the Jewish farmers today, in 
spite of the considerable economic advance they made during the last 
two or three years, are thinking of selling their farms in order to enter upon 
another enterprise in a different section of the country. Even if they should 
not succeed in finding a ready purchaser, their dissatisfaction with their 
present condition leads them to become utterly indifferent toward the de- 
velopment and. progress of the colonies. Consequently, between the group 
of farmers who have fallen into a groove from which they find it hard to 
emerge, and those who are planning to abandon their farms, the social uplift 
of the colonies suffers seriously. 

Every endeavor should be made to counteract this situation. The ac- 
tivities of the community centers must be extended, civic leagues should be 
organized, forums and public discussions should be encouraged. Effort 
should be concentrated mainly upon the younger element to interest them in 
country life, and to encourage them in every way to make agriculture their 
life pursuit. Skilled and scientific agriculturists should be sent more often 
to inform the people how to get the best yield from the land. To widen 
their social and intellectual horizon, and to elevate their aesthetic taste, 
musical and dramatic artists should be brought down on certain occasions. 
Prominent speakers in Yiddish and in English would also help a good deal 
to relieve the monotony and to make the farmers' life more interesting. 
Their lives would become richer and fuller; they would be raised from the 
low level of a mere sordid existence to a higher plane of intellectual and 
aesthetic aspiration for which their souls so very often crave. 

But great care should be taken lest the colonists be made to feel they 
are recipients of charity, that they are being "uplifted". They want to 
know that their success is the reward of their own effort and initiative rather 
than dependent on philanthropy. They should be made to feel rather that 
it. is guidance afforded by people more fortunately situated economically and 
socially; that justice, and not charity is offered them. Let it be reiterated 
that all Jews are responsible for each other, and a noble service benefits the 
donor as well as the beneficiary. The writer is looking ahead to the time 
when the proper development of the social, intellectual, and aesthetic life 
of all rural communities will become a matter of public and not of private 



6 e JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

concern, when funds to carry out these noble purposes will be raised through 
taxation, equally distributed and not through private philanthropy. Mean- 
while, however, philanthropy is the principal agency. 

Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the fact that profitable farm- 
ing is a sine qua non for all community effort. The social resources of a 
people can be developed, only when their economic wants are satisfied; the 
farmer must receive sufficient compensation to make his efforts worth 
while. Although the figures of the 1920 Federal Census have not yet been 
made public, it goes without saying that the average net income of the 
farmer throughout the country increased steadily in the last decade, and 
that most of the farmers are better situated financially today than they were 
possibly ever before, in spite of the increasing expenditures that accompany 
the present income. As far as the Jewish farmers are concerned, the 
writer's survey presented in the preceding chapter disclosed the fact that 
their average net income in 1919, exclusive of farm expenditures and 
vegetables raised for home use, ranged from $900.00 in Carmel to $1,500.00 
in Garton Road. 

While this should be a source of rejoicing to everyone interested in the 
progress of the farmer in general, and the Jewish farmer in particular, and 
while every effort should be made to elevate their financial condition to a 
still higher level, it must be remembered that the economic factor cannot 
control the life of the farmer exclusively. Once he attains an income suffi- 
cient to make him economically independent, let him beware of falling into 
a groove of complacent contentment which spells deterioration and decay. 
Let it rather stimulate him to a noble outlook, to develop in himself and 
help develop in others the intellectual, social, and moral qualities which 
make for genuine social progress. 

More attention should be paid to the character of the home. If the 
Jewish homes in the colonies we're made more attractive and the parents 
showed greater interest in their improvement, more of the youth might be 
encouraged to remain on the farm. The safest investment that a farmer 
can make is to install in his home whatever modern conveniences his capital 
will allow, to make it approach a city dwelling so far as possible, to mini- 
mize the contrast between a city and country home. 

The ever growing discontent among the women on the farm, too, would 
thereby be mollified. Some of the Jewish women in the colonies actually 
discourage their daughters from remaining on the farm and prefer to have 
them go to the city, because of their determination to free them from the 
privations which they were compelled to experience. In addition to the iso- 
lation and monotony of women's condition on the farm, the lack of home 
conveniences makes their life a burden. A woman, very well acquainted 
with the farm situation, made the statement that the farm kitchen is the 



POTENTIALITIES 67 

poorest equipped workshop in the country. That condition can and must 
be remedied as soon as possible. Formerly when the farmer had to struggle 
with all his might to make ends meet, the improvement of the home was out 
of question. But now, since the farmer's income is increasing yearly, 
the home conditions can and must gradually be remedied. 

Furthermore, the farmer should from time to time purchase additional 
farm implements to make the outdoor work less burdensome, and more 
interesting. When the youth will find that the drudgery of farm labor is re- 
duced to a minimum by the introduction of agricultural machinery, when he 
will discover that the proceeds from farm crops are satisfactory, when the 
home on the farm will be as comfortable as city homes, and when, further, 
he will have the opportunity to develop his intellectual and social faculties, 
then he will not be so anxious to leave the farm as heretofore. Therein 
lies the key to the solution of the farm problem. The question that arises is 
whether or not the standards set are too high or too difficult of attainment. 
That depends on the amount of effort exerted in this direction. It appears 
to the writer that no effort is too great to bring about the realization of so 
noble and so necessary an end. 

It has been intimated above that the absence of modern conveniences 
in the country homes and the lack of labor saving devices on the farm are 
accountable in part for the drift to town. The schools, likewise, must share 
the responsibility to a certain degree. There is little if any correlation be- 
tween the school and the home. In most cases, the teachers are not resi- 
dents, and are not concerned about the welfare and progress of the com- 
munity. Their interest begins and ends in the school room. The salaries are 
so meagre that few of the teachers care to remain permanently in the 
colonies. Many of them are beginners in the profession of teaching, merely 
serving an apprenticeship; when they have secured a certain amount of ex- 
perience, and are just about ready to do efficient teaching, they leave for a 
different locality. Furthermore, the teaching does not express the daily life 
in the rural districts. The schools which train the children during the habit- 
formation and impressionistic period of their careers are the best agencies to 
implant in them an appreciation for farm life. The school curriculum 
should be so planned and arranged as to give the country life subjects their 
proper place. There must be a closer relationship between the school and 
the home. Every opportunity should be seized to point out to the pupils 
the advantages of agriculture and country life, so that when they grow up 
they will not look upon farming as a drudgery from which they must escape, 
but rather have the desire and inclination to equip themselves with a further 
knowledge of scientific agriculture and make farming their life work. The 
country people will be more willing to support better schools when they 
will realize that the schools are prepared to train the boys and girls satis fac- 



68 JEWISH COLONIES OF SOUTH JERSEY 

torily for life on the farm. 

Before closing, a few words must be added about resident leaders. The 
colonies are suffering tremendously at the present time from a lack of such 
leadership. Jewish young men and women of efficiency, energy, and ability, 
possessing good training and education, refinement and culture, with an ap- 
preciation of the orthodox customs and traditions, with a knowledge of the 
Yiddish language, and imbued with a broad social spirit are needed in the 
colonies to help bridge the gap between the old and the young, between the 
Jew and non-Jew, and in general to assist the people in their effort to im- 
prove their lives. Every inducement and encouragement should be offered to 
such men and women to come to the country and remain there as permanent 
residents. The advantage to the country folks would be this, that while these 
young men would be devotedly pursuing their own vocations, they would 
interest themselves in the welfare of the people among whom they live. The 
enthusiastic efforts of these leaders would in time call forth the latent quali- 
ties that lie dormant in some of the farm folks, who would develop into local 
leaders, and together they would serve as vanguards in the advancement of 
the intellectual and social life of their communities. Such people as guides 
could unite the others for mutual improvement. The associations for social, 
religious, educational, and business purposes would become vitalized and 
energized. Personal character and community righteousness would be 
fostered and cherished; spiritual and moral ideals would be developed and 
maintained. Then farm life would be made attractive to intelligent, pro- 
gressive people, and there would arise a rural civilization in the Jewish 
settlements that would be in harmony with the best American thought and 
aspiration. 



CONCLUSION 

It is true that the Jews have been and, to a large degree, still are the 
People of the Book, from a secular as well as from a religious point of view. 
It is true that the Jew prefers mental pursuits. It is also true that most 
of the children of the Jewish farmers have not remained farmers, that they 
have entered the commercial and the professional world. But although 
this was and has been the situation, there is nothing inherent in the Jew 
to warrant the conclusion that it must be so. He has no instinctive aversion 
to farming, for history teaches that he was a tiller of the soil prior to his 
exile from Palestine; and from the reports of the Jewish agricultural 
colonies in the Holy Land to-day, one cannot help but conclude that he 
can be a happy, progressive farmer. It is chiefly a matter of environment, 
of adaptation and adjustment. Nurture is more powerful than nature. 
Efficient training in the proper surroundings, and subsequent encourage- 
ment are the basic needs. Nineteen centuries of persecution and restriction 
have weaned the Jew from the soil ; the twentieth century of freedom and 
tolerance can bring him back to his one-time love for the land. 

An effort has been made to show the present fundamental defects of 
the Jewish colonies and the reason why the people, particularly the younger 
element of the settlements, leave the farm and go to the city. Among the 
reasons were : indifference on the part of the colonists toward the develop- 
ment and progress of their settlements; absence of community spirit and 
civic pride ; inadequate education and social facilities ; inefficiency of agri- 
cultural methods ; want of stimuli to encourage the pursuit of scientific farm- 
ing ; lack of modern conveniences on the farm ; greater social advantages 
of urban communities ; the opportunity to earn more money in the city. 
Others no doubt may be added. 

It has been suggested also in a brief way how these conditions could 
be remedied. It is the duty of the colonists themselves and of those indi- 
viduals and organizations interested in the welfare of the Jewish people to 
make the settlements a suitable place to live in, socially, economically, and 
educationally. While it is not the intention of the writer to give any one 
the impression that the fulfillment of these suggestions will bring about a 
final and complete solution of the Jewish problem, he hopes that it will at 
least be a step in that direction. 



69 



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